Well THAT'S annoying...

We had reservations at the Metropolitan for our house hunting trip - very modern, trendy, fun (just like us...). I say "had" because apparently the reservation got lost somewhere between the travel agent and the hotel. Fortunately, we caught this before I left, but only by complete coincidence. I'd rented a mobile phone, which was to be delivered to the hotel, and the mobile hire ('hiring' is what renting a thing like a phone or a car is called) (though oddly, what you do with an apartment is called 'letting', so go figure) (maybe it's short for 'letting us take all the money out of your bank account') called me back to say that they tried to deliver the phone to the concierge at the hotel, but the hotel had no idea who I was.

The thing that's really killing me, though, is that when we called the travel agent yesterday to get this sorted (or "straightened out", for you Americans), the agent said to just 'call back tomorrow, it'll probably get updated in the system'. Now, I don't know about you, but the simple passage of time doesn't often solve my computer problems, and it certainly didn't solve this one. I suspect this response had to do with the fact that it was 5:15 on Friday.

So now we're staying at the Savoy, which is a very nice place (Liz Taylor has stayed there on every single one of her honeymoons), but not really in the right part of town for our house hunting. I shouldn't complain - it's no Comfort Inn. The stunning thing is that all of the hotels in the convenient part of town are either booked or £400/night. Yeah, the company's paying for it, but still, I don't want my first meeting with my new boss to be about justifying why I spent $800 a night on a hotel when a perfectly good one was available elsewhere in the city.

At least the weather there looks great for next week (high 50's and sunny most days). Will be having a pint somewhere near the river in about 24 hours if everything goes well. And yes, I DID call the Savoy to confirm my reservation :)