Talk of the Town

EDINBURGH Accies rugby team have recruited a couple of Brazilian internationalists who are in the Capital to study. Introductory training saw Edouard Clark and Leonardo Pereira taken to Portobello beach for a run-around, and with a twinkle in his eye coach Ian Barnes asked the pair how their new surroundings in mid-January compared with Rio's famed Copacabana. Barnes was told: "Copacabana is bigger."

For tact and diplomacy the pair are surely off to a flying start!

Sunday surprise to make them jump out their skins

TALK of Accies' sporting recruits recalls the time their cricketing counterparts enlisted a young West Indian professional whose arrival coincided with horrendous weather which left him increasingly homesick until – allegedly – a colleague invited him round for a meal, saying: "Come on Sunday and share the family joint."

The cricketer's mood brightened instantly and remained that way until arriving at his hosts to see the roast beef emerge from the oven just as he was producing his own cannabis contribution to the occasion.

Hamsters gone very wrong

IT'S the time of year when New Year's resolutions are being broken across the country. But not, it seems, at Butterfly & Insect World.

The centre at Lasswade carries out daily workshops to help visitors overcome their phobias of spiders, snakes and insects, and reports that visits are through the roof compared with this time last year.

Last week saw hundreds of terrified punters pass through the doors to face their fears. Assistant manager Kevin Thom is something of a genius when it comes to persuading arachnophobes to handle tarantulas, but admits to a few quirky phobias of his own: "The tarantula's not really as scary as a house spider – there's no scurrying involved with a tarantula.

"Tarantulas are like a hamster gone wrong. I'm personally a bit scared of hamsters. The only good hamster is one that's frozen for feeding to the snakes," he joked.

Stone cold curler solidarity

FOLLOWING the of the cancellation of the curling Grand Match between several Lothians teams that was due to take place for the first time in 30 years on the Lake of Menteith, one man decided to take a stand.

Curling enthusiasts had hoped an unofficial version of the historic meeting would take place on the Lake of Menteith yesterday. But melting ice meant even that could not go ahead.

Graeme Murdoch took a trip to the also frozen-over Duddingston Loch in Edinburgh over the weekend, to show solidarity with the curlers.

Venturing on to the treacherous surface, he swept a curling sheet as a gesture of support.