John Gibson: Mind your step, you can catch it

You can catch it, like you can catch the next train to Glasgow Queen Street, if you’re not careful. Sphingomonas and methylobacterium. Just to stick this on my computer screen is painful.

You contract it from bath and toilet mats and non-slip shower mats. So next time you bound out of the shower, look into the mirror and fancy yourself as a Page Three hunk you could be the biggest bug-bearer in town.

My informant is an authority on the sphinwhatitsname at the University of Colorado. You are risking verrucas and athlete’s foot, he warns. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Vote winner

Partisan? Who, me! On an albeit mad impulse I voted SNP at the last election and, of course, have lived to regret it.

Besides, the father-in-law of Joanna Mowat, Alastair Mowat, is an age-old pal of mine. He got things done while a director of Scottish & Newcastle in their Holyrood days.

So Joanna gets my vote on May 3. She’s the City Centre Conservative candidate. “Edinburgh has been let down over the last five years through a lack of strong leadership,” she’s shouting. “It’s time to prioritise the things that matter ... street cleaning, road and pavement repairs and maintenance, well-lit streets.”

Right on, Joanna! But Edinburgh’s Tories have tons to do to put the Capital to rights.

Afterwords . .

... this is American author Jean Kerr painfully close to the truth: “The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at 7.30 in the morning feeling just plain terrible.” Jean, you’ve got us guys to a tee. Exactly how we feel.