Talk of the Town: Castle rocks, but Maria’s a bit lost

IT’s one of the most common – and most annoying – of questions posed by tourists: “How do I get to the Castle?”

And now it has hit the internet, thanks to the twitterings of Page 3 girl and The Only Way is Essex star Maria Fowler.

Maria was in the Capital yesterday for a spot of sightseeing, after moving up north with footballer boyfriend Lee Croft, following his move to St Johnstone.

And after describing Edinburgh to her 300,000 Twitter followers as “ledge” – not a description of the city’s rocky outcrops, but slang for legendary – she admitted that she was having a few problems making her way to the city’s most famous landmark.

“Trying to get to the Castle but can’t find stairs,” tweeted the glamour model. “Anyone got any ladders? Ha”.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but a picture posted with the message revealed she was tweeting from Castle Terrace – just a few strides away from the Castle Wynd steps.

No tea and sympathy for Labour councillor with flu

IT is an accusation that has always been levelled at men – that they exaggerate illness.

And the issue of “man flu” provided some rare light relief during a meeting of the city’s policy and strategy committee.

During a debate about a new council policy for sickness absence, Labour councillor Paul Godzik used his own recent experiences of illness as an example.

“In December, I had flu – although my wife said it was a cold,” he said.

Take someone’s breath away

LOVE will be in the air on February 15 – quite literally.

An Edinburgh restaurant has announced it plans to bring together lonely hearts the day after Valentine’s Day through the medium of balloon dating.

Vittoria on the Bridge will be dotting eight heart-shaped balloons around the city on the day. The lucky couples who find them will be able to take it along to the restaurant on George IV Bridge at 7pm where they will enjoy a romantic meal together.

Hopefully the balloons won’t be popped by cupid’s arrow before they are found.

Crunched lunch

HEARTY-lunch loving continental cousins look away now.

The average lunchtime of an officer worker in the Capital is just 17 minutes – and half of that’s spent on Twitter. A quarter don’t even leave their desk and another 27 per cent don’t bother eating at all, according to Campbell’s soup.