Tag: Australia

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 161: Vancouver, BC – Haircut & 49th Parallel

Kim & Curtis Hale

Haircut

We were up a little later today and we felt great!

We had a decent sized breakfast and watched a couple of YouTube videos and then got ready for the day.

We went down to Gastown for Curtis to get his haircut. Unfortunately, the barber was a bit behind and we had to wait for 30 minutes!

Curtis got his hair cut and was very happy with it! The barber was from Australia and had only been in the country for 9 weeks.

Coffee

After the haircut, we went for a coffee a our favourite place, 49th Parallel.

We each got a doughnut, Kim a chocolate one and Curtis a lemon one. Curtis also got a cappucino.

We left the coffee shop and walked home.

We watched a bit of TV and then went out to get some food for both tonight and the Thanksgiving meal tomorrow.

We don’t celebrate it, but want to have a nice roast anyway.

We started at Whole Foods, where we got a nice half rack of lamb to have.

We went to SaveOnFoods for tonight’s dinner, which was swedish meatballs, carrots, creamy gravy, mashed potato & peas.

We watched some more TV and then went to bed. Other than having an nice big dinner, we have no plans tomorrow.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Auckland

Place 49 – Day 367: Auckland – Tuesday Turmoil & Sewing

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis was actually in the office today, which was a big change from being at the client!

When Curtis got to the office, he didn’t have too much to do, other than some admin. He was pleased that it seemed it would be a calm day…he was wrong!

Shortly after Curtis arrived, there were multiple emails about critical websites being down, from multiple clients.

It turned out that there was some software on each server which was slowing them down to the point they stopped working!

Curtis and his colleagues spent the whole day attempting to remove this software and get everyone’s websites back up and running. Whilst this made the day go fairly quick, it wasn’t the chilled day Curtis had hoped for.

Curtis drove home around 15:35 and arrived home around 16:00.

Both of us;

We went for a walk once Kim was home as the weather was still amazing!

After our walk, Curtis made his incredible rice again to go with the remainder of our chilli con carne.

Post dinner, Kim had to re-sew her strap back onto her handbag as well as a dress strap. After this, we went to Glenfield Mall so Kim could look for something to go with her dress for her Christmas party. We then went to the shop and bought items for Kim’s work lunch tomorrow.

When we got back home, Kim spent a while making a delicious risotto for the next few evenings.

We watched a few videos and then headed to bed.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 366: Auckland – Monday Morning Madness & Sweetcorn Avalanche!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis arrived and didn’t have to wait at all as his colleague had a key so was already inside.

Once Curtis got inside, he was unable to start doing what he wanted to do as the internet was down!

Curtis and his colleague spent a few hours atrempting to test and fix the network issues and then eventually it just all worked again, which was brilliant.

After this, Curtis could actually do what he needed to get done for the day. He had to go to each person in the office and set something up for them. This took a bit of time and then when that was done Curtis wrote a 7 page guide for the users.

When Curtis drove home, the weather was Incredibly hot!

Curtis got home and went to the shop quickly. When he got back home, he opened all the windows and doors to get a nice air flow.

Both of us;

Kim got home and after a bit of a relax, she went for a brief walk in the sun.

After, we ate leftover chilli on nachos with a side salad. Kim caused a sweetcorn avalanche when she accidentally threw sweetcorn all over the floor!

We watched The Apprentice Final and then some YouTube videos before sleeping.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 365: Auckland – Belgian Cafe Dinner, Mini Christmas Market Walk & 1 Year in NZ!

Kim & Curtis Hale

After waking up at a similar time as yesterday, Kim went out to McDonald’s to get a breakfaost from there and we sat and watched videos in bed for a while. The perfect Sunday morning.

Kim went out early afternoon to see if Danielle’s mum had any shoes she could borrow for the last week of work. Turns out that she didn’t, but Kim still got to see Danielle and even went for a milkshake!

Today, it is apparently 1 year since we arrived in New Zealand, which is odd because we arrived on the 18th, not the 16th!

Once Kim was back, we waited for a bit and then we drove down to the city to meet Colten and Sarah at a Belgian cafe/pub.

The Belgian cafe is somewhere we’ve walked past a few times and really wanted to go in, so we’re glad we got to go! This place does remind us of Europe.

We had to wait a little for a table, but Colten & Sarah hadn’t arrived yet either. There were way too many beers to choose from, but the food looked incredible!

Once we got a table, it was time to order! Curtis got the Venison Pie which had a cinnamon gravy and Kim got the lamb shoulder. Curtis’ was tasty but the peas and carrots were cold. He’d give his 6/10. Kim’s was OK but a lot of fat and just nothing special, she gave it 5/10.

After we finished up there, we went for a walk to the Sky Tower where there was a small christmas market.

Curtis and Colten got a coffee each and Kim got a chocolate sundae from McDonald’s. Colten and Sarah got their portrait drawn and we had a bit of a walk around.

We had a chat for a bit and then it was home time. We walked back to the cars, said goodbye and went home.

We got home and Kim had a chat with her mum and dad before we went to sleep.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 364: Auckland – A Haircut, A Frappé and A Seamstress

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at 09:30 and had eggs on toast with a hashbrown for breakfast. After we ate, Nicola returned from a walk and we chatted with her for a bit before getting ready to go out.

Kim had a haircut booked for 11:45 in Birkenhead, so we drove up to Birkenhead and Kim went to get her haircut at a fancy place! It was a pretty cheap price considering it seemed fancy and Kim also got a free coffee with a biscuit!

Kim’s haircut was successful. Kim got it cut how she wanted, which doesn’t happen often!

We drove to Wirau where we went to a few places trying to find a semstress.

The seamstress was required as we have a pillow from our sofa which needs a new zip.

We eventually found a seamstress in Glenfield Mall, but she needs to order in the zip so we have to wait for a bit.

We went to get the shop done after we visited the seamstress and then went for our usual coffee! We got all adventurous and had a mocha frappé each, which were obviously delicious.

When we got home, we watched some videos and then made an amazing Chilli Con Carne for dinner, with kumara wedges.

Post dinner, we decided to watch a movie called ‘Love, Simon’. We give this a solid 9/10!

After the film we watched some more videos and then it was all of a sudden time for sleepin’!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 363: Auckland – It’s Complete!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

After arriving on site, Curtis went right to the machine he was exporting on and it had frozen at the same point it did yesterday, so he had to figure out another option.

Curtis got it sorted eventually, after a few hours. He then went to the person’s machine and set it up on there, so then that person was sorted!

After doing this, Curtis went across the road to the other site, where he had to setup 3 PCs. This took a little bit of time, but this eventually got done and that was it! The user migration has been done, but there are still files to transfer over next week, but the main bit is done.

Curtis headed home with bad traffic but he was taken another route home, too.

Both of us;

Once Kim was home too, we ended up accidentally having a nap! It was nice at the time, but after we woke up we felt awful!

We were still super tired, but we couldn’t be bothered to make any food, so we drove up to Glenfield Mall to get some donburi. Curtis had lemon pork & spicy teriyaki chicken. Kim had karage chicken as well as sweet chilli chicken.

We ate our dinner at home whilst watching the film Daddy’s Home 2, which we thoroughly enjoyed!

After the film, we watched some YouTube videos and then Kim spoke with Abbie for a couple of hours.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 362: Auckland – 10+ Hours of Work

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis’ day was way busier then it should have been!

Upon getting to the client, there was just 3 users to complete and a couple of extra machines, so Curtis assumed it would be a quick easy day…but nope!

The first machine was completed quickly and then Curtis had to wait for another person to arrive at the office to complete his laptop. Once he arrived, Curtis completed his laptop also. This one also didn’t take too long either, so it definitely seemed like a good start!

Curtis went to have a walk and get a coffee for about 10 minutes and then went right back to it.

After the walk, Curtis completed one of the other PCs he needed to get done so he had just 1 of those to do and 1 more user.

Curtis did the user at 14:00 and thought it would be quick, but it took until 17:00 to do, and it wasn’t even complete entirely!

Curtis drove home and arrived there at 17:30…He had worked over 10 hours already and still had a bit more to do when he got home.

Both of us;

Kim almost had the dinner completed by the time Curtis came home, which was really nice for him. We had the final remains of our pulled pork belly.

We went for a walk again after work because it was lovely weather and Curtis definitely needed a walk!

We got some nice photos, too.

We got back home and watched some TV…we are looking forward to it being the weekend!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 361: Auckland – Wednesday Night Vietnamese Coffee

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis got to the client around the same time as previously and someone arrived shorty after to let him in.

In the morning, Curtis got something completed from yesterday and another completed from scratch, also.

At 10:30, Curtis had it planned to see someone and get their PC sorted, but they were not there, so he was unable to get that done until around 11:30. Unfortunately, this one took ages to configure itself, so it wasn’t done until 15:00.

After this, Curtis started another but then left around 16:00. Curtis’ colleague got one completed also so there are only a couple remaining to complete, which means it should be completed this week!

Curtis drove home, with little traffic.

Both of us;

We had dinner shortly after we were both home. Dinner was just leftovers from yesterday, but we added more BBQ sauce to the pork, which made it even more delicous!

After dinner, we sat and watched Blue Planet 2 but we both became tired around 19:00 which is too early, so we decided to go out. We drove to Takapuna, parked up and walk to Tok Tok, where we just wanted a Vietnamese coffee!

The restaurant was very busy, but we got a seat briefly and enjoyed our coffee.

We had some people sit next to us and we briefly chatted with them. They realised we were British so asked if we’ve enjoyed our time here and we chatted about it for a bit.

After our delicious coffee, we went back to the car but taking the long route so we could have a bit of a walk.

Once we got back home, we watched a bit more TV and then went to sleep!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 360: Auckland – Pre Travel Sort Out & Christmas Decorations!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis left an unwell Kim at home and headed to the client.

Kim was home all day today as she wasn’t feeling well at all. We think she may have what Curtis had on Saturday!

Curtis had already done a lot by 09:30, which was very positive and motivating.

Curtis went on to get another few machines migrated and by the time he left, he had completed another 6 machines…A huge chunk completed! He plans to have a similar day tomorrow, but we’ll see.

Curtis’ drive home was slow, but he stopped at the supermarket on the way home for some essentials.

Kim’s Day;

Kim spent the majority of the day in bed, but did get progressively better throughout.

When it came to late afternoon, Kim was feeling much better and even put on some pork belly in the slow cooker for dinner.

Both of us;

Once Curtis got home, we spent a good chunk of the evening sorting what to keep and what to get rid of for when we go traveling next. This was very, very successful though we were very tired afterwards!

We finished off dinner and had pulled pork and coleslaw buns with a side salad and kumara wedges.

We finished dinner and watched some TV, including Blue Planet 2.

After watching TV, Kim went and spoke with Nicola and then managed to start doing some Christmas decorating…Kim and Nicola made a Christmas tree on the wall, put up some decals and painted some candy canes to add to the homemade tree!

After this, we went to bed as we both have busy days ahead of us tomorrow.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 359: Auckland – Steady Progress

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis got to the client and his colleague was not there, but Curtis did get it around 07:20 which was earlier than usual for this client.

The day started with Curtis needing to finish a machine from Friday, which took roughly 2 hours to finish and then a few more minutes deliver to and train the user.

Curtis had the odd thing to do here and there after this until around 12:00 when he went to get a coffee and had a bit of a walk.

After this, Curtis was pretty full on until 15:00, but then he had a few things to help people with and, before he knew it, it was 16:20…so much for leaving at a decent time!

There wasn’t much traffic for Curtis on the way home. When he got back, he did the ironing and collected the laundry.

Both of us;

Kim got back and it was so hot that we needed some fresh air, so we went for a 30 minute walk. We used this time to chat about our days with each other.

We got home and were lazy so had pizza for dinner, with a side salad.

We watched some TV and that was the end of the day for us.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale