Have you ever worried you might accidently impale yourself on the beak of a penguin?
Well, according to Lorraine Kelly, that’s exactly what health and safety officials feared when they commissioned an artist to create the Discovery Point penguins.
Lorraine shares the anecdote of how she got one made with its head up and it has somehow managed to avoid disaster in her new book.
Lorraine Kelly’s Scotland is a personal journey around her favourite places, and Dundee where she fell in love with the city as well as her future husband Steve features prominently.
Dundee’s emperor penguins have long been treasures of the city but not everyone knows that a fifth penguin was created as a gift from Steve to Lorraine.
In what she describes as her “most romantic gift ever”, he tracked down sculptor Tim Chalk and commissioned him to make one more.
Lorraine said: “Tim revealed that he had to make the penguins outside Discovery Point have their heads bowed and tucked under their wings because health and safety officials were worried a distracted passerby might be impaled on their beaks. There was no such problem with my penguin, who stands in our garden with his head up and his beak proudly pointing south.”
The presenter’s personal highlights of Dundee include her favourite examples of the native tongue, how she walked down the aisle to Bonnie Dundee and how she still enjoys a “peh” at half time when she goes to see Dundee United and a pint afterwards.
Read our interview with Lorraine in Saturday’s Courier magazine.