Hotel Nicole, pt3

Matt Oakes stopped thru last night, on his way back to Calgary from Spain (after touring Germany, World-Cup style) with Kris, et al, for the past few weeks.

Matt Oakes! And my ugly wallpaper!

In the few years since I've seen Matt, he's become a property mogul and rather amazingly lives around the corner from DarNat/Tony. Calgary might be growing, but it's still a small town...

Then again, at times, so is London. Matt's flight was supposed to arrive at Luton airport about 5:40pm. I figured it'd take him a couple hours to get to my place, but when 9pm came around, I started to get concerned. I knew he had my cell number and all that, but was getting a bit anxious -- until my flatmate Peter comes back from the shop around the corner... with Matt.

Apparently, Matt got to my building, but couldn't find my flat (it is a weird building). He had no change to make a phone call, so walked back to the main street, went into a shop and tried to buy a phone card. Peter overheard Matt's discussion/argument with the inane shop clerk, and somehow deduced -- by his accent, I suppose -- that Matt was Canadian.

Figuring there could only be one Canadian on our street, Peter asked: Hey, are you looking for Nicole? Which must have totally blown Matt's mind...

Anyway, we went to the pub and talked about the Calgary property market and German efficiency, among other things. And then this morning, after spending half an hour trying to catch the tube to Victoria (delays due to signal failures, as usual), he was off home again...

So who's next at Hotel Nicole? Could it be you? Nah... doubt it.