Talk of the Town: Paul’s not part of the panda-monium

But judging by his online blog, it seems housing leader Paul Edie is not quite as impressed as many.

He has posted a YouTube clip of his nephew Hamish in Tanzania playing with a wombat that showed up in his garden.

Cllr Edie said: “This video, reproduced by kind permission of the young (human) star’s dad, definitely beats the pandas for the “Ahhh Factor” – and this one actually moves!

“It was, I am assured, a rescue wombat being looked after by a neighbour. Not sure what the UK suburban equivalent of these are.”

Christmas dinners dish out a pounding to Lothian guts

A FESTIVE moment on the lips could be up to three months on the hips . . .

Watch out – these are the findings of a recent survey showing the extra pounds piled on over Christmas can take quite some time to shed.

Not good news for those of us across the Lothians who have made the most of the festive season so far.

According to MSN, the average Briton will have had two or three Christmas dinner servings, therefore consuming 2300 calories – 115 per cent of the recommended daily intake for women and 92 per cent for men.

It’s a no from you

TEENAGE heart-throb Leon Jackson might have been the first Scot to achieve a Christmas number one, but new research from the British Heart Foundation has placed the Whitburn singer in a less illustrious category.

Its research found that a single by any winner of the X Factor is the least welcome thing under Christmas trees in Britain, with 25 per cent saying it was the last thing they would want.

Other unpopular choices include saucy underwear and musical ties.

Perhaps that tie that plays When You Believe wasn’t such a great gift idea after all.

Milk, bread and lizards

REMEMBER when your supermarket was simply a place to pick up your bread and milk?

Nowadays, you can pop in to find clothes, computers and – in one case – a bearded dragon.

The lizard, found abandoned in an Edinburgh supermarket in September, was one of more than 100 exotic pets taken in by the SSPCA this year.

A royal python, a Chinese soft-shelled turtle and an albino kingsnake were also taken in.