Talk of the Town: Sun-thing special goes down in city

YOU wait years for an eclipse and then two come along at once.

Hot on the heels of the lunar eclipse on the Winter Solstice, weather permitting, stargazers should have been treated this morning to a rare eclipse of the solar variety.

In the Capital just before 9am the sun was expected to appear as a crescent as it rose and was partially obscured by the departing moon. The bad news for would-be astronomers is that if you missed it you'll be waiting until 2028 to see a similar sight.

The rest of you can be assured that the extra-gloomy morning wasn't just the end of the festive season and the onset of winter in earnest.

Grumpy old woman shows off her wilder side

MERCEDES the polar bear left Edinburgh Zoo for the Highland Wildlife Park in 2009, and late last year was joined by young male polar bear, Walker.

But she hasn't exactly welcomed him with open paws. After 15 years on her own, Mercedes initially reacted by flinging her 45-stone frame through the undergrowth at him in a series of open-mouthed charges, and observers say she still doesn't seem impressed by the youngster, slinging him sullen looks as he slides joyfully down the slopes of their enclosure and leaps into the pool.

Perhaps a starring role in the next series of Grumpy Old Women should be next on the cards?

Take shelter from sales

IT sounds like the annual Shelter sale in Stockbridge was not for the faint-hearted.

Talk of the Town hears bargain-hunters descended upon the store like a plague of locusts, stripping mannequins of their designer clobber and arguing over who had their hands on the bargains first.

But it's all for a good cause and for those who think they're hard enough there will be a re-match at the charity's Forrest Road shop on January 7.

Auto anxiety

HERE at Talk of the Town we've long suspected that not only are women indeed better drivers, but that, secretly, most men know this.

Now a new poll has shown that most men are happy to be driven around by their female partner.

However, the study by the Institute of Advanced Motorists showed that women are more likely to be unnerved by having a male passenger than vice versa.

Only five per cent of men are sometimes not relaxed or never relax when their woman is behind the wheel. But if they are driving their male partner, as many as 15 per cent of women are sometimes not relaxed and about eight per cent are never relaxed.