Talk of the Town

EDINBURGH is a fantastic place to find God, according to pop star turned Anglican priest Richard Coles.

Coles, best known as one-half of Eighties pop group The Communards, revealed that his conversion from pot-smoking, party-loving pop star to priest didn't happen on the road to Damascus, but in Edinburgh's very own St Mary's Cathedral during a Festival visit in 1990.

He said: "I wandered into St Mary's Cathedral and they were singing choral evensong, and I just wanted it. Something released within me. At the same time, I hated wanting it because it didn't fit with anything else."

Clearly thinking Don't Leave Me This Way after his enlightening trip to the Capital, he visited a psychiatrist who convinced him to talk to a priest. A decade later he was ordained the Reverend Richard Coles.

Yule be let off parking ticket

WHO says Edinburgh's parking wardens don't have a heart?

The Radio Forth Cash for Kids team received a parking ticket while delivering toys collected from listeners to the depot in Morrison Street, ready to distribute to social workers and others who were giving out the gifts. A zealous parking attendant issued the ticket despite a "Cash for Kids Loading Toys" sign being displayed in the windscreen.

But after an appeal to the parking powers-that-be the fine has now been cancelled. Festive spirit prevails again.

A question of milk

IF YOU thought being snowed in or trapped for hours in a traffic jam over the last few weeks was inconvenient, spare a thought for poor calcium-starved author Ian Rankin, who has been left craving some of the other white stuff.

The Rebus writer has been forced to swap his typewriter for his "Chelsea tractor" to fetch his own milk after his deliveries were disrupted by snow.

He said: "Thankfully I have a 4x4. Yes, these Chelsea tractors we all love to hate do come in handy sometimes. Although working from home means I haven't had the hassle of commuting, I have been popping out for milk, which I wouldn't have otherwise been.

"I usually get mine delivered but the float hasn't been able to get around."

No need for Bobby pins

SHOPLIFTING costs retailers an estimated 5 billion a year but Britain's biggest shoplifting gang cost one Lothians bobby something much more valuable than money – his luscious curly barnet.

Speaking about a BBC1 expos on the Scots gang which was screened last night, entitled Millionaire Thieves, PC Brian Forbes of Lothian and Borders Police's retail crime unit, said: "I had thick curly hair when I first started this job. They put paid to that I'm afraid. The bane of my life."