Talk of the Town: Lithuanians fail to make presence felt

WITH Vlad and son ruling the roost at Tynecastle and Hearts' Lithuanian players camped in town, you'd think the Baltic state would have an official presence in Scotland.

If you'd wanted to watch last Friday's clash with Scotland at the Lithuanian Consulate though,, you'd have been out of luck - the tricolour doesn't fly over the city.

Still, if Scotland ever play Yemen, you'll find their diplomatic corps rooting for the Gulf team in West Preston Street.

Kebabologists put their faith in Cafe Piccante

CAFE Piccante, Edinburgh's famous kebab house based on Broughton Street, has been shortlisted for the national WKD Golden Kebab Award.

It was selected by "kebabologists" Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham, who spent months touring ten cities and visiting more than 400 kebab houses, in what some might consider to be the world's best job.

Good luck in the contest to Piccante, and owner-manager Selim Sener.

Scared to kick up a stink

A STUDY by the makers of deodorant Right Guard Extreme suggests the majority of Britain's men are more than willing to tell colleagues they smell, though four per cent would only dare do so by by text message.

It seems Edinburgh males are a reserved bunch though - 80 per cent said they'd find it hard to tell someone they smell as they don't want to embarrass them.

Unsurprisingly, the survey also found that most men believed body odour to be the biggest turn-off for women.

If that's closely followed by the overpowering aroma of Right Guard Extreme, the survey failed to mention it.

Don't bank on property

MOST people might have thought there was little left that bankers could do to make life worse, but it turns out that might not be true.

Experts at Saint Property have warned that a bankers "exodus" from Edinburgh to London could put huge pressure on the property market, and leave a raft of expensive homes empty - they estimate that two in three Edinburgh homes worth 1 million or more are owned by senior bankers.

Matthew Sinclair, director of Saint Property, said: "A migration of bankers and leading figures from associated professions such as accounting and insurance to London would certainly have a weakening effect on the property market, causing a ripple effect from the top down."

It remains to be seen whether this news can convince people that Sir Fred Goodwin should remain here.