Penquins

Wasn't that a really good programme! Loads of Charlie Chaplin look-alikes heading over the ice. Wonderful.

I had set to record that Penguin program as well as Lewis. I sat down tonight to watch on my first evening in this week and they both appear to have been scooped by Pope Benedicts resignation.

I had a clockwork walking penguin as a child which has led to a life long fondness for the species. DD's sponser a King Penguin for me at Edinburgh Zoo - renewed each year for mothers' day. I call him Bruce as in KING Robert the .... and also because his heritage is Australian. I love penguins' style - spotlessly clean smart suits with usually a wee flourish of red or yellow to spice up the outfit. I love the way they pick themselves up quickly when they fall over, looking all round to see if anyone has noticed. I love their devotion to their chicks, their partner and their community - a lesson for us all. Finally, I love the fact that they are flourishing, perhaps benefiting from the dreaded global warming, so that I don't need to worry about them.

My all time favourite clip is the one where a circle of penguins are looking up at a circling helicopter and not being designed for looking upwards, bend so far backwards that one by one they fall over.

Fabulous! What gorgeous creatures they are in every sense - as Granny23 has said better than I can. But WHY do we find them so funny? Is it because they are upright like us? Their embarrassed grunts and squeaks when they fall over or miss a rock they are trying to hop up are so expressive, you just have to laugh!

Loved it!