John Gibson: Take my tip and be wary of the needle Currie is best Donate to Dnipro

Published on Monday 28 September 2009 11:08

GOD spare us. Should we succumb to the swine flu pandemic – we're now being advised there'll be a second coming – take heart. Those of us who survive can learn from it.

You can get the jag but I've yet to see somebody in the medical profession swear on a stack of Bibles that it won't have any side-effects.

I've never felt so . . well, so helpless, since the Russians threatened to nuke us. Governmental advice then to us serfs was to stock up with cans of beans, shut the windows, bolt the doors and hide under the kitchen table.

It's crossing the Scottish Government's mind that, in a swine flu "worst case scenario," many fatalities could see funerals being held at home should churches be overwhelmed.

Which prompts the thought, funerals, like weddings, now cost the earth. Even without a pandemic, in normal circumstances what's to prevent a DIY funeral? Ask your friendly neighbourhood undertaker.

Curry on learning. Wily Wali Uddin, whose Britannia Spice restaurant in Leith's Commercial street keeps snatching awards, has an unshakeable belief in Currie for schooling.

Both his daughters are former pupils, 17-year-old Suhaly, now taking accountancy and maths at Heriot-Watt University, and her married elder sister Ruhaly.

Wali, with the city council's support, hopes that pupils from the school will visit a college in Sylhet in his native Bangladesh in the spring in a reciprocal arrangement.

"I'd like to see Lord Provost George Grubb get to Sylhet, too, in what would be a tremendous morale-booster for the local youngsters," says Wali.

One suspects that the enterprising restaurateur believes in the old school tie.

&#149 Divine providence. Hibby diehards who trekked to Ukraine for the club's Uefa Cup tie with Dnipropetrovsk in 2005 were so affected by the plight of some 200 children there in orphanages, a TB sanatorium and a baby centre for impoverished mothers that they launched their Dnipro Kids Appeal. They're having a fundraising night in November. Jim Divine's your man at 07946620130 if you've any auction prizes.