John Gibson: Bravo's what we've got to say to him

Published on Monday 22 June 2009 09:32

I'M slushing the gums with the boss, Peter Chesney, of Slaters, the George Street outfitters, when in walks Grant Stott.

Conspiratorially but without a blush, tells me he'd been searching for a bra.

Well, some of us chaps need one, more so when we're running for a bus. But Stott, a cross-dresser? Just maybe, I'm thinking. He's given to dressing up for the King's panto, remember.

Slaters was busy and Mr Stott, as if to reassure me and customers within earshot of his macho, in a clearly audible voice, asked "do you think Yogi will do a job for us?"

He and I follow the same football team, for which Yogi Hughes has been recruited in management.

I'd better explain, though, that Stott's quest for a bra was all to do with his prominent role at the weekend in the MoonWalk for breast cancer charities, the walkers having been obliged to flaunt their bras.

Bangla bank job

Better off banking in Bangla? The St John's Curry Club was front page news two months ago when its second chef Jahiral Islam was victim of a late-night assault on his way home from his work in Corstorphine.

He's now back at the club with head chef Jahangir Alam but the restaurant's owner Shorof Uddin is beginning to believe it's jinxed.

Two forged cheques that have cost him hundreds of pounds have bounced, with an irate Mr Uddin, who has nurtured the club these past eight years, mired in ongoing investigations at the RBS Corstorphine branch.

"Is our money safe in the bank," he wonders, "or would it be safer banking in my native Bangladesh?"

Afterwords . .

. . . self-styled symbol of Italy and icon Gina Lollobrigida on about today's actresses: "If they feel better about themselves after surgery, that's their business.

"For me it would be the opposite because, being with a man, instead of touching you he touches a piece of silicone and that would be disturbing.

"The real trouble with actresses today is they all look alike. You don't know what is real, what is silicone.

"In my day we were different from one another. And we were natural, our breasts were natural."