Zara Phillips has certainly had a busy time of late. From yachting, to property buying, to wearing knockout dresses at friends' weddings, she is definitely the busy modern royal about town.

Zara and Mike Tindall have bought a house in Gloucestershire. A five-bedroom mansion in Gloucestershire, no less. That's lots of room for the little pitter-patter of future royal footsies - a whole football team if the five bedrooms are anything to go by.

But hang on, apparently it has no stables for Zara's 14 horses, so perhaps the extra bedrooms are to accommodate the gee-gees. With £250,000 pounds of renos going on, I'm sure the horses would find it most satisfactory. A lick of paint, fresh carpets, and some nice prints on the walls... well, no horse could complain about that.

Must admit to a certain envy at the photograph of Zara cosied up in the gorgeous arms of Bryan Adams (bit of a secret crush for a few years) at the Artemis yacht challenge. Oh yes, you might think there'd be a bit of dress envy about the photo of her in that cerise number at her friend's wedding, but, you know, there's envy, and then there's plain old dreaming.

Zara really is a poster girl for health and fitness and it's nice that she's continuing the family tradition started by her grandfather, Prince Phillip, in being involved in the yacht race. And also nice that her fiancé, oops, boyfriend, Mike Tindall accompanied her. Just a shame that lack of wind took the wind out of their sails. Better luck next year....

PS. Topless water ballet, topless horse-feeding.... George W , eat your heart out. As far as 'Action Man' awards go, it seems President Putin's beaten you, fair and square. And he did it all...topless.