Sword Swallowing and other things

Yesterday was International Sword Swallowing Awareness day, believe it or not! We were fortunate enough to see a couple of performances by Dan Meyer, one of only about 25 known active sword swallowers in the world, courtesy of the Wellcome Collection Museum. His performance was also repeated at the 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' Museum in Picadilly circus, and is shown in the video below:

Amazing stuff! And for anyone who thinks it's a trick - here is a fluoroscopy video of a sword swallower in action:

The Wellcome Collection Event included a consultant radiologist who has published a paper on injuries associated with sword swallowing, and it turns out to be a pretty dangerous occupation (unsurprisingly!), 10-20% of sword swallowers have died while doing it.

Also this weekend included a trip to the London Dungeon with Clare and Joel for a good scare. Unfortunately I was chose as the demonstration subject for the torture instruments! It was good fun though, worth a visit...

But this isn't me, fortunately!

We followed up the visit with a delicious Dim Sum meal, and Joel was brave enough to try something new, steamed ducks' tongues: