diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 6471f8f..c5a61f0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@
 - introduce a new data input/output mechanism to allow the master side 
   to send and receive data from a slave. 
 
+- use new register hooks facility of py.test>=1.2.2 
+
+- fix some python3 related pickling related race conditions 
+
 - fix PyPI description 
 
 1.1
diff --git a/testing/test_mypickle.py b/testing/test_mypickle.py
index 9e5f205..f33c547 100644
--- a/testing/test_mypickle.py
+++ b/testing/test_mypickle.py
@@ -252,3 +252,10 @@ class TestPickleChannelFunctional:
         channel.waitclose(timeout=2)
 
 
+
+def test_explode():
+    from xdist.mypickle import explode
+    assert isinstance(explode({}.values()), list)
+    l = []
+    assert isinstance(explode(l), list)
+    assert explode(l) is l
diff --git a/xdist/mypickle.py b/xdist/mypickle.py
index c87005e..7869f85 100644
--- a/xdist/mypickle.py
+++ b/xdist/mypickle.py
@@ -100,16 +100,25 @@ class ImmutablePickler:
         return res
 
     def _updatepicklememo(self):
-        for x, obj in self._unpicklememo.items():
+        for x, obj in explode(self._unpicklememo.items()):
             self._picklememo[id(obj)] = (fromkey(x), obj)
 
     def _updateunpicklememo(self):
-        for key,obj in self._picklememo.values():
+        for key,obj in explode(self._picklememo.values()):
             key = makekey(key) 
             if key in self._unpicklememo:
                 assert self._unpicklememo[key] is obj
             self._unpicklememo[key] = obj
 
+def explode(obj):
+    try:
+        obj[0]
+    except TypeError:
+        return list(obj)
+    except IndexError:
+        pass
+    return obj
+
 NO_ENDMARKER_WANTED = object()
 
 class UnpickleError(Exception):