We had a slow start to the day after our travel time last night. Kim went out for a dog walk and then we both went and took the train to Basingstoke, like old times!
We saw Curtis’ cousin and his wife and child for the first time! We had some Nandos, lots of conversations and just a really fun time overall!
We took the train back to Kim’s parent’s place and continued to sort out remaining items to keep/not keep.
We had veggie meatballs for dinner and then after dinner Curtis watched the final Great Britain hockey game.
Day 2
We went out for breakfast and then Kim went out to Thorpe Park (the theme park) with Abbie! Curtis had a chill day and did very little.
When she got back, Kim walked the dog again and then Curtis met his friends Ben & Josh for dinner! They went to a Nepalese place in the town, which Curtis didn’t know even existed.
Day 3
This day was another relaxed one, with a baguette being purchased and eaten from the same place as before, of course.
We visited Curtis’ family and when the kids got home from school, we went to the shop with Curtis’ sister, Evie, to buy a few supplies and just hang out a bit.
We went to visit Kim’s family friend Debbie at her house and there were quite a few people there to say hi to us! Kim got to see a lot of people she hadn’t gotten to see yet, which was lovely, and we had some drinks and snacks too.
Day 4
This day was spent packing and getting everyting sorted out, as well as a few remaining items left to sort from when we lived there.
We took the dog out for one final walk and then had a really lovely final dinner with the family at Wagamama, our favourite Japanese food chain in the UK. This was great as a lot of our family were there so we had a great little last time!
We had a drink or two at a pub down the road after and then headed back home to sleep before having to fly the next day.
Day 5
We got a lift to the airport and said our goodbyes, with a few tears from Kim.
We had breakfast at a bakery in the airport which was surprisingly nice and then we went to get a coffee and relax.
We decided to book extra legroom seats for the way home and that was much better! This flight was super easy and we were able to be more comfortable and get a bit of sleep on the 9 hour flight, too.
When we got home, the airport took FOREVER but we finally got through it and onto the train home.
We arrived back home and did very little. It was great to be back at home but we did miss everyone back in the UK!
We woke up for our last day at the farm and we were made some waffles for breakfast!
We went to see one of the kids’ gymnastics performance nearby. This was great to see all of the kids having fun.
Unfortunately we had to leave before it was done and drive to Oslo! We had never been so we wanted to see what it was like so we drove there to stay for our final night in Norway. We stopped in Kongsberg for snack and coffee, of course!
We got rid of the car, which wasn’t super easy to find and it was actually in a parking structure but maps took us to a different location! Once we did that we got ourselves checked in to our hotel which was right on one of the main streets. We had a shower and freshened up before walking for some dinner.
We walked fairly far to get a burger for dinner but it was great as we got to see a lot of the city.
Once dinner was done, we continued our long walk around Oslo and all of the different areas! We also went to the cool looking opera house that they have in Oslo.
For the evening we had a nice relaxing time with snacks in bed and watched some TV.
Day 2
We had free breakfast at the hotel but it was a nightmare! Far too busy for such a small spot.
We walked to the King’s castle and we walked around the park that is attached to the castle. It was such a peaceful place to walk around and the architecture, as is Europe, was beautiful.
We went to ‘Frognerparken’ which is the famous park with a lot of nude sculptures in it, which is one part of it but also it’s a nice park and the sculptures look cool!
We walked to find ourselves a coffee and then walked to Askerhus festing, which is an old castle/military fort.
We walked quite far from here to ‘Gamle Oslo’ which is the old part of town which also has a very new part just around it. We wanted to check this out and we loved it.
We went back to the hotel to get ourselves sorted and then headed to catch the train to the airport.
We flew back to the UK to spend a couple more days there.
Kim’s dad, Tom, picked us up from the airport and we had a McDonald’s for dinner on the way home, of course! It was time to sleep once we got back.
We drove to Nordfjord to visit our friends at the farm that we visited on our travels around 6 years ago! The drive was through snow as well as a lot of tunnels and we got to see a bunch of new places we hadn’t seen!
On the way, we stopped at a bakery in Rødberg for a cinnamon bun and then we carried on to the farm.
We arrived and had some lunch and some coffee, as is tradition, and we caught up with the family who now have an extra child than they did last time which was lovely to see and amazing to meet them.
We were chatting about badgers being a problem and of course, one appeared! We had to chase it down and trap it.
We walked through the forest and cleared it up, clearing up rubbish and also branches that are in the way. The plan is for them to make it into a field that can be used.
We ended the night with some food and a chat. We got to sleep in the cabin we slept in last time which we loved!
Day 2
We had some breakfast and then went down to where the lambs and sheep live to stack a bunch of firewood/logs so they can dry and are stored for the winter. We love doing this so this was great!
We had a coffee break, as you should, it was really nice to sit and chat with them whenever we had a chance.
We needed to move some wood planks from a trailer onto the floor so the trailer could be used again. There were a lot of planks but we worked with Martin to get it sorted.
We loved the opportunity to feed the lambs, too! Some had to be bottle fed, so it was a super nice experience and something new!
For dinner, we had a big roast with a big lamb/sheep leg which was slow cooked. Kim obviously didn’t eat it but Curtis did and it was excellent! The vegetables were a delicious side too.
We needed to make a fence to put around the new sheep field, so we helped to get that done after dinner, which was nice and relaxing.
Day 3
We started with breakfast, as expected and then right when we were getting ready for getting some work done, there was unfortunately a crazy incident with a stabbing in the local town.
This meant that we needed to be vigilant just in case and also the owners of the farm went to see if they could get their kids from school and to see if they can help at all.
The craziness went on for a while and once the evening hit, we walked around and checked all the old fences for holes or trees sitting on them before moving the sheep to their new field!
We had a beer in the sheep field once they’d moved and it was a very nice feeling to see our work come to fruition.
We finished our time there with a curry night! Martin made some really good homemade curry and we even had a visit from one of their friends who sat and had some food with us as well.
We had about 1/2 a day left after this, which will be covered in the next post!
We loved visiting the family again and we can’t wait to head back, see even more farm improvements and help them out.
We had to get to the airport early in the morning but we didn’t mind as we were travelling to probably our favourite place, Bergen!
When we arrived, we met our great friends Espen & Marcus at the airport and they drove us to Espen’s apartment. We hung out with them at the apartment as well as meeting Espen’s girlfriend, Rikke, who is a wonderful person also!
Rikke made us some lunch, which was delicious, and we sat and had a conversation for a while.
We wanted to visit the city, as did our friends, so we all took the bus to the city and had a walk around.
Marcus’ dad owns a nightclub/bar in Bergen and he was working, whilst the FA Cup game was on, so we went to watch that with Espen (he’s a Liverpool fan) and we had some drinks and food.
We went back home and we watched Eurovision for the first time! We had a great time watching it actually, and it’s a big deal in Scandinavia. We had some homemade pizza whilst we watched that and then it was time to sleep.
Day 12:
We had some nice homemade breakfast lovingly made by Rikke & Espen.
We had a relaxed morning and watch the GB Vs Norway hockey game. We then got ourselves ready and headed into the city on the bus again.
We lazily walked around the city and tried to buy few things and look around some shops as well.
We went out in the afternoon/evening to watch Rikke in a cheerleading performance! It was super cool to see lots of different ages doing a similar thing but at different levels.
Day 13
We went out for brunch in city with our friends which was really nice! We had some good food and some amazing weather, so much so we were getting burnt from the sun.
We rented a car, so we went to pick that up. They told us there were no issues with it but it was quite scratched up, so we did a full walk around of that and then we set off! We drove to the city and parked up before going to get MANY cinnamon buns and coffee, as is the rule in Norway.
We went for a BBQ at Rikke’s parents’ place which was a really nice place, great food and they were really lovely people as well.
In the late evening, we went to meet another friend, Tony, for some drinks and a chat. The weather was so nice we were able to sit outside comfortably, too!
We got all dressed up for breakfast, Curtis and Espen wore suits, Kim had a nice skirt on and Rikke had a Bunad on, the national outfit of Norway. The table looked all fancy and we had a really nice, big breakfast!
Espen & Rikke!
We took the (very busy) bus to the city to join the celebrations.
There was a parade and we were able to get a table outside to watch the parade and have some drinks! The weather was perfect again so we caught some sun, as well.
After the parade, we went out to Rilke’s aunt’s house for some food and chatting! Everyone was Norwegian so it was a good time to practice some as well. We tried some Rømmegrøt, which is basically ‘sour cream porridge’. When adding a lot of cinnamon sugar, it’s pretty good actually.
We went back to the apartment to get changed into comfortable clothes and relax after a long busy, but fun, day!
We ate homemade cheesecake and strawberries whilst we relaxed and we were all super tired.
Marcus and his girlfriend, Stine, arrived and we got to meet her for the first time. We all sat and chatted and had a really fun time. This was when Curtis finally got the confidence to chat in Norwegian and surprised everyone with how much he has improved, too!
We started day 8 with going to get a car rental! We picked up a small Toyota Aygo and set off for breakfast at the McDonald’s that Curtis used to work at when he was younger.
After breakfast, we set off on a drive to Wales! We aren’t sure where in Wales it was, but we were visiting a friend there!
We got to her house after a few hours of driving and we sat and chatted for a while before we went out for lunch at a nice local cafe.
Post lunch, we jumped back in the car and drove off to Plymouth! We have a few friends that live there, so we drove down to see them, have some dinner and drinks and just chat a bit.
When we arrived, though, we had to drive around Plymouth which is just hills! A bit crazy and not super fun to drive or park on. We got parked up and luckily we had a friend that was letting us stay with them overnight, which was nice.
We had a curry for dinner at an Indian restaurant with a bunch of people and by the time we ate and left it was already bed time! We headed back to the apartment and went to sleep. We had another drive the day after so a good sleep was required.
Day 9 – Bournemouth, UK
We were up early and we drove out to Bournemouth!
We had a concert to see so we thought it made sense to keep the car for the extra day and drive to Bournemouth from Plymouth.
We were staying at a Premier Inn again because it’s practical and we know it’s nice!
We got ourselves settled and then we went out to a Sigrid concert. This concert was a small intimate concert and was very short but was amazing!
We left the concert and had a bit of a walk around Bournemouth and then grabbed some KFC for dinner.
Day 10 – Andover & Basingstoke, UK
Once we headed to a nice cafe for breakfast, we had a bit of a walk at the beach in Bournemouth, which we both used to go to with our families when we were younger.
We drove back to Andover and then off to Basingstoke for a bit of shopping with Kim’s family.
We took the car back after we were done in Basingstoke and then we had to pack to go to Norway!
We went to have pizza with Curtis’ dad and it was really nice to see him, too.
We stayed overnight at Curtis’ family’s house and then off to Norway we go!
The next blog will be about some time in Norway, which was an awesome time with celebrations and lots of hanging out with friends.
It’s been 5 years or so since we’ve been in the UK so we thought it was time to visit the family and friends in our home land.
We arrived around 11:00, got picked up from the airport by Kim’s dad and then we went back to Kim’s parents’ place to stay.
We showered and went right out to get our first food item that we’ve been wanting to get for a while…A baguette!
There’s a baguette shop in our hometown (Andover) that sells terrific baguettes, so we walked down to get that and have some lunch.
We relaxed for a bit but stopping ourselves from sleeping after the long travel.
We went to see Curtis’ mum and then we both went with her to meet Curtis’ siblings from school and surprise them! They were surprised, as expected, and they both cried!
After picking up the kids from school, we stayed at Curtis’ family’s house for a bit and hung out with them until we got picked up by Kim’s sister, Abbie, and driven back to Kim’s parents’ for some Chinese food!
That was the end of the first day, which was mostly just getting acquainted with the timezone again and eating food.
Day 2 – Andover, UK
We finally got to take the dog out for a walk with Kim’s family. It was nice to see the doggo again too and be able to take a walk around places we used to walk around a lot.
We needed to go to the bank to get some boring admin stuff sorted but it was good to get that done. We had to visit 2 banks in total but we did it all in a day!
There was a bunch of stuff that we had left in the UK that we really needed to sort out. There was a large pile at each of our parents’ houses so we each had a bunch of stuff to sort. We spent a lot of this day sorting Kim’s items and deciding what to keep (which wasn’t much!).
We had some leftover Chinese for dinner and watched a movie.
Day 3 – Andover, UK
It was time for another dog walk! We took the dog out for another nice long walk and had some decent weather too.
We then went out for brunch with Curtis’ parents at a ‘new’ garden centre, which was really tasty and nice to hang out with them.
Before heading out, we stopped in at our first UK shop on our trip so we had a great time walking around there finding all the great snacks and seeing how cheap everything is!
We had to get ourselves a UK SIM card for whilst we’re visiting which we can also use in other countries, so we went into the town to buy one of those.
Curtis then went back to his family home and cleared out his items that he left 5 years ago and mostly just got rid of everything!
In the evening, there was a really lovely family BBQ at Curtis’ family’s house with a lot of his family as well as Kim’s family so it was a really great gathering with great weather.
Day 4 – Andover, UK
We went out for breakfast with Kim’s family down at a local pub and then went out to Basingstoke for some shopping and wandering around! We used to love going there for shopping and a few other things so it was good to see what was there and Kim was able to take a look at a few shoe shops, too, to see if she could find something she needed.
Once the evening came, we met with a bunch of friends and had some drinks and pizza! We hadn’t seen most of them for many, many years so it was a lot of catching up, chatting and having a really good time!
We found it easier to stay in Basingstoke, so we booked in to a Premier Inn, which is one of our favourite chain hotel brands in the UK so we wanted to stay there too!
Day 5 – Andover, UK
We had breakfast out at the pub again on this morning and then we went over to visit Kim’s sister at her house and see the house for the first time which was amazing to see!
We then had a really nice picnic in the garden as it was Kim’s mum’s birthday! This one was of our more relaxed days which was really nice to have.
Day 6 – Andover, UK
This was a day of meeting with our friends!
Kim met with 2 friends separately, Ashleigh & Eloise, and she had a bunch of really great conversations with them!
Whilst Kim did that, Curtis met with Shane, who was his best man at his wedding. He had lunch with him, and some drinks which was great to catch up. There was a lot to talk about.
We went out to Curtis’ auntie’s house to see her and her family and it was very, very nice to see them.
Dinner was at Curtis’ family’s house which was really nice to get some time with them and Curtis got some home cooking from mum!
Day 7 – London, UK
We took the train to London in the morning which was exciting! We love taking the train and it was super easy from where we used to live.
We did some walking around/shopping, as you do in London, before we went to meet Kim’s cousin, Bethany, in Camden!
Kim used to love going to Camden so we went there to go to the food market with her cousin, who is super lovely and we had a great time chatting and wandering around with her.
Once we finished up with Bethany, we took a train to a place we’d never been to before called Kingston. We met with a friend who lives there and had some dinner with her as well as a nice walk along the river.
We had to take a couple of trains to get back to Andover but we were close to the final train so we had to get a move on and do that! It took a while but we were able to get back home for some sleep after a really busy but amazing day!
We were away for a long time, so this is just part one, but it’s been a while since there were any blogs, but enjoy!
Well hello! It’s been a while, as expected, but we have some recap to do!
Christmas happened and we had no plans, but that was great. We had a nice veggie roast and had some chats with our families throughout the day.
Snowboarding
Kim went out snowboarding with a colleague. They went for an evening and got back fairly late, but had a really fun time! Kim basically had to re-learn from scratch, but her friend was happy to teach her again.
Kim loved it so much and is going again this coming Tuesday!
Another Dog!
We fostered another dog! August, the previous dog, went on to a long term foster and we didn’t have a dog for a bit, but then we went down to the boarder to pick up Harper!
He’s a very good boy! He’s a German Shepherd, Husky, Malamute & retriever mix!
Very lovable dog who loves cuddles and we’ve loved having him around.
We took him out to Steveston today. He loves car rides and seemed to enjoy Steveston and meeting all the dogs. We let him run around a bit (on the lead) and he was having a great time.
A New Job!
Curtis is starting a new job in a week!
Curtis will be joining Legible, where Kim works, as their solo IT person (as a Senior IT Specialist). He’s very excited and glad to be able to get in and help them out with IT and also advance his career!
On Wednesday 3rd November, Kim went out to the airport to help people unload dogs that had been rescued from China.
This took a very long time, about 3 hours or so, but after it was done Kim was offered a dog to foster! The foster had pulled out, so she got the chance to foster a 1.5 year old Samoyed for about a month or so.
The dog was so good! He was a little hyper when we got him and he did pee inside overnight on the first night, but other than that, he was awesome to have around!
We got him some toys, treats and a bed (which he doesn’t use) and just hung out with him for a bit.
On the Sunday, Curtis went to hockey and then Kim got an Uber out to catch his game a little later!
Whilst Kim was out, she setup cameras to check on the dog to see how he was. We weren’t sure how he is being left alone, but turns out he’s fine!
Unfortunately, once we got home, we took him out for a walk and he vomited many times. We then had to take him to an overnight vet, which took 3+ hours and we didn’t get to sleep until 4:30am!
The vet thought he was just a little sick and gave him a little medication and fluids to get him sorted.
The place we fostered from then complained that we took him to the vet and seem to be refusing to refund us for the treatment now, which is very fun.
He was sick for most of the week this week, but has now improved a lot!
We likely won’t foster again from these people, either, as they keep saying the dog will be leaving within the next day and then we hear nothing…It’s all a little crazy and we got no information on the dog, either!
Kim took him out today to hang out with another dog and her friend and he was a very good boy!
We did get to go out for dinner on Tuesday for Kim’s birthday, too. Kim’s friend came over to pet sit and we walked down to Gastown to a French restaurant we went to when we first moved to Vancouver.
The food was alright but the service was pretty awful. We probably won’t be heading back there.
We still have the dog now, even though we’ve been told he’s going 3 times! We are still awaiting a call from them to tell us more about the plan, but for now, we are having a great time chilling with the awesome, chill doggo.
On Saturday, Curtis was up at a good time to go and get a haircut. He had a really great barber, actually! She was new at the shop but she was very nice and did a great job. Curtis’ll definately be going back to her for his next cut.
Right after that, Curtis walked back home and met Kim, before we walked for about 30 minutes to get to a park for a BBQ with Curtis’ hockey team which the team organised!
Not too many people turned up, but it was nice to have a bit of down time in the blistering sun, eat some food and have some drinks.
We headed back home and Kim went out to get a few items at some stores and Curtis watched the first Leafs pre season game!
Sunday 26 September 2021
On Sundaymorning, we were up early and got ourselves some croissants for breakfast.
We left the apartment into the lovely rain and drove for about an hour up to Langley to a farm!
Kim had booked an alpaca walking experience for us both as Curtis’ favourite animal is the alpaca.
We got there and were handed an alpaca right away. We were able to walk them for a bit and then we got to a field where we met many more alpacas and got to feed them whilst we learned all about them.
We got to see the pigs, chickens & rabbits followed by some cows that came to say hello!
We headed back home after we were there for a while and once we got back we were pretty hungry, so we went out for an impromptu late lunch!
We went to Water St Cafe, which is down in Gastown.
We may have got far too much food, though on the plus side, we had dinner for the next night!
We got some mixed breads along with a cheese caprise, which was very delicious. The bread was really good too.
We finished that and for some reason, we order a meal each. Kim got a carbonara and Curtis got meatball pasta.
We had very little of our meals as it was a little too much for us! But we did have a few drinks which were delicious.
We walked back home in the rain and when we got home we did some relaxing for the remainder of the evening.
We officially got accepted for permanent residence here in Canada!
So what does that mean?
This means we no longer have any restrictions like we did on our permits and we can stay here in Canada for 5 years before we need to renew it (which is apparently easy).
What next?
We need to get our PR cards, which we can do online and once we get those, we can get our new SIN (social insurance number).
Once that’s done, the process is done! Then, we’re able to come and go as we please and work here as we please for 5 years.
This is all exciting! We are glad the process is finally done and we’re residents of Canada!
Mr & Mrs Hale 