The Chicken Challenge

A sunny August sunday at Dunc's parents house for Michaela's birthday, climaxed not only with England winning the Ashes, but more importantly with a traditional chicken challenge competition in the local playground.

As I'm sure that all readers will be aware, the chicken challenge involves rocking on the playground equipment so hard that both the beak and then the tail touch the floor. Kind of a Surrey playground rodeo.

There were three falls of various intensity, none of which were caught on camera, but check out Dunc's attempt to ride the chicken one handed:

Playing the building

This is a art/music installation in the Roundhouse in Camden by David Byrne. Basically, he's wired up an old organ to different parts of the building, so that when you press the keys, the building makes different sounds.

Fun for kids of course...

And its a great space, especially when you are there on a random Friday when there are not so many people around:

A week of culture and reclimatising to life in the UK included a lot motorways. The roads seemed so attractive - quiet and luxurious - after two months of crazy Sri Lankan traffic.

And being back in the Kangoo was fun. We drove all over southern England to Chichester, Oxford, Barnet, Hertford on various expeditions to see friends and family.

In London, we took in a bit of culture at the Roundhouse in Camden, where Jacob took part in David Byrne's attempt to turn the building into a musical instrument (more of that later).