One important consideration upon moving to a new neighborhood is the new local. I refer in particular to the Oxford English Dictionary's sense B.2.h. "The public house in the immediate neighbourhood. colloq.(Usu. the local.)"

Our old neighborhood had a rather impressive range of dismally rated pubs, but eventually we settled upon the Faltering Fullback.  "Student union theme pub for middle-aged ex-students" ? Fair enough, but it ticked all the boxes

(x) walking distance
(x) decent beer selection
(x) reasonably priced food that didn't make us sick
(x) non-aggressive clientele

But now we've moved beyond walking distance and it's hard to call it our local when it's now 7 bus stops away. Fortunately we have an easy decision. Although the Woodbury Tavern is technically closer and (apparently) reasonably well-regarded, the Oakdale Arms is a clear winner.

As card-carrying members of the Campaign for Real Ale how could we not choose a pub that chooses to emphasize traditionally-brewed real beers? The pub itself, inconveniently located in a mostly-residential area, is nothing special, somewhat ramshackle, cavernous, and (still) a bit too brightly-lit. It's never very busy, but for a small cluster of the most regular of regulars (among whose numbers I cannot count myself). But it's the drinks that are the most convincing: a good range of real ales mostly from Milton's range (8 hand pumps on the bar), real cider, bottled Belgian and German beers. They may stock a run-of-the mill commercial lager or two like Stella Artois or Foster's, but if so they are well-hidden.

At the moment they are putting on a small Beer Festival, about which more later.

Something happened; this statement is the one in which i explain how user error and/or technical issues contributed to the disappearance of a rather lengthy entry, optionally including some ranting. Rather than attempt to reconstruct the original entry (an impressive scholarly effort on the linguistic diffusion of the All Your Base phenomenon), I shall instead highlight a new resource, The Eggcorn Database. Eggcorns are described in much more detail in this Language Log entry (and many subsequent discussions on the Language Log). In short, they are errors of usage (as in "egg corn" in place of "acorn") -- "linguistic errors" in which the erroneous form makes some sense -- perhaps more sense than the original form in this day in age (~10,600 Google hits vs. ~662,000 for "in this day and age", and only 3 for "in this dane age").

An interesting flyer appeared through our post box recently, titled "Spruce It Up!" and announcing a local event "Celebrating environmental achievements". Although the activities didn't interest me so much (plant potting, bird boxes, lantern making, ecological crafts, face-painting and badge making), the multiple languages did. The flyer contained text not only in Turkish ("TEMİZ GÖRÜNÜŞ", with no exclamation point) but also a mystery language ("Isku dubba rid!").

I was especially curious about this mystery language; not only was it unfamiliar (and had an awful lot of double letters, e.g. "U dabbaaldegga horumarinta bii'adda Ee mandaqadda NDC") but also I failed to think of any immigrant community that might speak this language (although we've only been living there two weeks). Although I had my own Rosetta Stone in the form of the English translations, it didn't get me very far;

Sabtida = Saturday
Waalidiinta/Daryeelayaasha = Parents/Carers
Cunto iyo cabbitaan lacag la;'aan ah = Free food and refreshments

I tried to put off the temptation to use Google but eventually I gave in.  The word "XUSUUSNOW" ("Note", I think) did the trick (do it yourself if you'd like the answer). And as it turns out, by remarkable coincidence, the same language provided the basis for an audio Language Quiz 2 over at the Language Log.

So now I know some more about the ethnic composition of our neighborhood (as it turns out, also fairly prevalent in our old neighborhood, although you don't see many _________ restaurants or ___________ shops).

When we moved house a couple of weeks ago, like so many people we chose to travel into a lovely industrial estate and brave the crush of IKEA (on a weekend no less) in order to collect a few cheap pieces of furniture. At least we did try a range of second-hand shops first, but no dice. We ended up with a pleasant enough dresser and desk chair, and weren't sucked into purchasing too many fripperies. We were witness to only one instance of IKEA RAGE on this occasion (it's so charming to hear a fellow american shouting "How Dare You" at full volume in a crowded environment).

But now we thank our lucky stars we didn't wait until IKEA opened a store a little closer to home. Perhaps best described in IKEA's own press release, which begins

"At 00.42am on Thursday 10th February 2005, the new IKEA Edmonton store outside London in the United Kingdom closed after several people were tragically injured during the midnight opening event. The ongoing celebrations were cancelled, and the store will remain closed until further notice."

The Guardian article adds additional details including the brandishing of wooden mallets, while the SUN (sorry, this link has now expired) calls it the "Battle of Ikea" and includes DRAMATIC PHOTOS FROM THE SCENE (including one image (caption: "Terrified ... a toddler is lifted over people's heads to escape the crush") which reminded me a little too much of Michael Jackson dangling "Blanket" over the balcony.

All the fuss about the IKEA riot has totally distracted the press from the news of the upcoming marriage between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, which to date has received only a single mention in the press. I am pleased to see the UK press are finally over their obsession with the royals.