Tag: blog

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 459: Vancouver, BC – What’s Going On EAR Then?

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at a slightly better time today and had some crepes for breakfast.

We slowly got ready for the day and then Kim did a bit of work and some PR related things. She had to do the work as it relates to tomorrow, so it needs to be done before the day begins.

Once that was done, we went out to get some booze and then a coffee after.

We also got some ear solution as Curtis currently has a blocked ear, meaning he can’t really hear out of it, which is a concern! We’re trying the solution and if that doesn’t work, he’ll head to the doctor.

We got home and played some games and did Curtis’ ear solution, which didn’t seem to do anything just yet.

After that, Kim made a really tasty roast dinner!

We watched some TV for the rest of the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 458: Vancouver, BC – The Start of Christmas Things

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up pretty late today and had some cinnamon buns for breakfast whilst watching some TV.

We got ourselves ready and then did a bunch of housework, getting some laundry done, replacing the bed sheets and some vaccuming.

We went out for a coffee late afternoon and short walk, as far away from people as we could.

We got back home and played some games and then we went out to the supermarket in the evening to get our weekly shop.

The shop was quite large, but we have some really nice meals planned for the week!

We got home and made some potato and chicken with BBQ sauce and cheese along with a side salad and garlic bread. A big mix of random stuff but pretty tasty!

We then watched a Christmas film (kinda) called Holidate and then a Christmas TV show based in Norway and in Norwegian, which was most of the reason we are watching it!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 457: Vancouver, BC – Curtis Achieved Today!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a meeting right away in the morning with his team and directly after that he had a call with someone to try and fix a couple of issues that have been bugging them.

That call lasted for an hour and Curtis figured out their issues and what he needed to do and went away to do that.

About 30 minutes later, Curtis had a call with an external vendor to get an integration setup between two systems. That went nice and smoothly!

Curtis then had a long team meeting and right after that he jumped on a call with the person from the morning to continue helping with their issue.

After that, he finally had some lunch and then he did some tickets followed by an offboard for someone that left today.

Curtis had a long day but it was very successful and he achieved a lot!

Kim’s Day

Kim had a nice lazy morning with a sleep on and watching some TV. Then she updated and sent over some paperwork for her manager from yesterday.

For most of the afternoon Kim worked on the facilities project. She had someone email over a spreadsheet of information so Kim went through it and made notes before sending it back.

During the afternoon she also worked on an info page for new starters explaining a few things about the company.

Evening

We got pretty hungry right after work, considering we had a late lunch, so we got a pizza from the best pizza place here, Pizza Garden.

We are that and watched some TV then played some games.

We checked on our application from yesterday as it said it was updated, but nothing was changed at all.

We just chilled out for the rest of the evening and that’s pretty much the plan for the weekend as there are now further restrictions in place for BC for another 2 weeks, so no hockey, no pole dancing and pretty much no travel, other than essential, so at home we shall stay!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 456: Vancouver, BC – Applications Moving In The Right Direction!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had no meetings today which was great!

He started the day writing a script for something which took a bit of fighting with but he got it working.

Once he did that, he did some other tickets and some other work and then all of a sudden, it was lunch time!

After lunch, Curtis did a bit more work and then watched the new restrictions be announced for the province, which means no more hockey for at least 2 more weeks and also a few more restrictions like mandatory masks in public indoor spaces, finally!

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by replying to a few emails about the facilities project and then updating the offer letter she put together yesterday. She spent the rest of the morning catching up on other smaller admin tasks.

At midday Kim hosted the social lunch hour. Only one employee joined so they just had a little chat and it was lovely. After this meeting Kim joined the recruitment meeting and provided a few updates on things there.

Kim then spent some time working on a couple of other Job Descriptions before joining the weekly team meeting. In this meeting Kim went over the updates for the facilities project and a few other things.

Everyone from that call went on to another call to have a chat with someone who will be starting shortly. It was so lovely to meet her and learn about some of the handover process.

For the rest of the day Kim looked into the new COVID restrictions here in BC and also worked on the facilities project.

First Application Submitted!

After work, Kim made a really nice roasted chicken tray bake, which had a Mediterranean taste to it, with some potatoes and a salad. It was pretty tasty!

We watched TV whilst we ate and then after we got both of our applications completed for the PR!

We are still waiting on some documents to come in, but we are hoping we can start the application process without the documents at the moment.

We submitted just Kim’s profile first, and then it was accepted right away! Due to this, Curtis submitted his and was also accepted right away!

Curtis then applied for the provincial nomination, which we couldn’t do until the other one was done, this helps to get a faster turn around as we have jobs! This way, we can get our bridging visa whilst the permanent residence is being sorted. (And need the bridging visa for May!)

Kim then went out to get herself an ice cream and we then were able to relax and watch some more TV and play some games together.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 455: Vancouver, BC – The Results Are In!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a short team meeting at 09:30 and then mostly did tickets all morning until a 1 on 1 at 12:00.

After that, he had a long team meeting at 12:30, which was followed by lunch.

After lunch, Curtis did some more tickets but also some practice tests for his Business Analyst exam.

Speaking of exams, we got our results for our English exams.

Curtis got (out of 12);

Listening – 8

Reading – 12

Writing – 10

Speaking – 12

He was hoping for better on listening, but it was all fine!

Kim did much better, getting 12 on everything, which was awesome!

Kim’s Day

To start her day Kim had a call with someone in regards to her facilities project. Then she moved onto drafting up some key points in a Job Description she worked on today.

Kim then had a call with the CEO to go over what we are looking for in an application. Then Kim got started and transferred some of those notes into key points for the job. She had another quick call in regards to the facilities project mid way through the morning.

For most of the day Kim worked on the job description, doing some research and converting the notes into things for the job description. She also decided to write up a template for ‘about the company’ and ‘why its great to work here’ that can go on every job description, so that was good and will save Kim a lot of time going forward.

Kim then worked on another job description and an offer letter for another role. Very interesting and exciting day!

To finish the day Kim worked on a little more research for the facilities project. Looked a few new things, added to the spreadsheet and made lots of good notes.

Evening

We forgot to take chicken out for dinner, so we had frozen pizza for dinner instead.

We watched some TV and played some games, but we also got our applications started for our visas, which we can now do as we got our English results! We still have to wait on our certificates for our previous qualifications to be certified by Canada, and then we should be able to do the test of the process, if we can’t do so before.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 454: Vancouver, BC – Facilities Project

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a chat with someone right away in the morning as they had deleted a lot of shared files, so Curtis had to work getting those back (which took about an hour).

After that, Curtis had a Norwegian lesson which went really, really well!

After the lesson, Curtis did a few tickets and then had some lunch.

After lunch, the day slowed down for Curtis so he got some admin done and a bit of other work. He had to investigate some quarantined files for someone and see if they are safe to allow.

Kim’s Day

To get ready for the weekly company wide meeting Kim added to her notes she has been making over the past week and checked last weeks notes.

After the meeting Kim joined another meeting that was going over a job description for a potential new role. It was really interesting as yesterday Kim had made a job description template and it was really fun to see the few things she had thought of already and also learn the many things she had forgotten or overlooked.

For the last part of the morning Kim spent some time arranging meetings for Kims facilities project that she will be working on in the afternoon, which was interesting. Then Kim wrote up and sent out the invite for the winter party, which was great as it was something that Kim had wanted to get sorted for a few days!

Before Kim went out for the afternoon she wrote up a lot of the information for the connect four tournament that she will be running over the next few weeks / months. She didn’t manage to send out the information, but she got a lot of it ready!

Kim then went out and met her colleague for the facilities project and attended a few meetings. It was a really interesting and fun afternoon that Kim will be able to say more about at some point!

After all the meetings Kim and her colleague went to a craft store to pick up a few items for an upcoming event. When she got home Kim wrote up a summary of the day and then sent out the information and sign up sheet for the connect four tournament! Today was a long, successful and very fun day!

Evening

Once Kim got back home and finished her little bit of work, we had the final bit of lasagna and watched some TV. That was pretty much all we did for the evening!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 453: Vancouver, BC – Changing Many Processes

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a meeting in the morning which went on for quite a while with his team.

After that meeting, Curtis caught up with emails and messages and then had to re-fix the issue he fixed from last week, which took most of the day, though there was a meeting in between to start a project with regards to his Business Analyst work.

Overall, the day went fast but was successful! He got things done and was busy for most of the day.

Kim’s Day

A new starter joined today so Kim got ready by going through notes and having a quick call with her teammate. They then both joined the call with the new starter gave them the chance to ask questions and helped out where they could.

Kim the prepared for a few other meetings in the day by making notes of things to discuss and researching ahead of the meeting. She also added a new meeting to a lot of peoples calendars.

Kim joined a meeting that was about a new role people want to hire for. This opened the door and now there are three new roles. Kim will now research salaries and built up base job descriptions for these positions, its very exciting!

Shortly after this Kim had a team meeting and she decided that today was the day to inform her manager that she is applying for PR and will need help from the company. Kim had hardly finished the question and her manager had already said ‘for sure’ so thats a big weight off of her shoulders and she is over the moon that the company will help. Kim is really enjoying her job and would much rather not leave! They also discussed the winter party and a facilities project Kim is working on.

Later in the afternoon Kim had a meeting with a manager to discuss their requirements for recruitment, onboarding and IT equipment their team will need. It went well and Kim has some good direction for her new onboarding process.

For the rest of the afternoon Kim worked on the facilities project, booked some meetings and sent a summary to her colleague and manager as an FYI.

Evening

We had leftover lasagna for dinner along with a ceasar salad.

We watched some TV and played some games. We were pretty tired, to be honest, so we went to bed pretty early.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 452: Vancouver, BC – A Lot Of Cooking & Baking

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up a lot later today, and Kim made some Crepes for breakfast. Kim had chocolate crepes and Curtis had sugar and lemon.

We watched some TV and relaxed and then got ready for the day.

We planned to take the recycling out, but the elevators were very full and only 2/3 were working, so we decided to wait instead.

We did the vaccuming and a few other cleaning jobs around the apartment.

Kim then made some more cinnamon buns, with the plan for them to be bigger ones than last time!

They took some time as it was enough dough for a very large batch!

The came out pretty good, actually, though Kim wasn’t sure to start with.

We went out to get some more milk and some cheese in the evening as we needed some to make dinner!

After we got back, Kim made a veggie lasagna which was absolutely delicious.

We then tried one of our cinnamon buns and they’re pretty great too!

We played some games and watched TV for the evening, getting prepared to work again tomorrow.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 451: Vancouver, BC – English Test

Kim & Curtis Hale

English Test

We had an English test today, starting at 10:00.

As mentioned yesterday, even though we are from the UK, we still have to have an English test completed for our PR, so that’s what we did!

We were up at 07:30 and very tired!

We walked down to the test centre which was about 15 minutes away.

We got there and had to sit around for a while and then we were taken in for our ID checks.

We then moved to the test room and sat our computers ready to take the test. That being said, we at there for 45 minutes waiting to start!

We eventually started and Curtis did it pretty quickly. We had 3 hours to do so, and Curtis completed it in 1 hour 15 minutes! There was a listening, reading, writing and speaking section.

Kim finished not too long after, maybe 30-45 minutes, and we were done!

We went to get ourselves a coffee and we both think it went pretty well.

We got home and were very tired!

Need For Speed, Completed!

We completed Need For Speed, so that was fun, and then Kim had to do a little bit of work for something that came up during the day.

After that, we mustered up the effort to go and do the shop.

We smashed the shop! Military precision was used and we got around it really fast, and even went to two other shops!

We got back home and had some cheese and wine for dinner whilst watching the film JEXI which was pretty funny and silly.

We relaxed for the rest of the evening. The day felt very long as we were up so early!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 450: Vancouver, BC – First Time Heating

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a pretty quiet day. He got quite a few tickets done and answered questions from people.

During the day, we got a bit too cold so we turned the heating on, only for it not to do anything! We were stumped so we thought that it was broken, but it turns out that the electric breaker was flipped off for heat, so we flipped that back on and we had heat!

A lot of the afternoon for Curtis was dealing with a potential security risk.

Kim’s Day

Kim spent the morning on odd jobs and small tasks. She reached out to a few people to get some information, started to set up one of the new softwares and updated some to do lists.

At midday Kim hosted a game of Skribbl and a few people joined in! There were 5 other people and someones son. There were three round that went on for 30 minutes and it was so nice to have people join, laugh and have fun. They enjoyed it so much they even hinted at making a tournament from another game Kim suggested. After the call Kim started making a score sheet for a connect four tournament. It will be so much fun!

For the rest of the afternoon Kim worked on her facilities project. It was a lot of research, saving information and collecting data on a spreadsheet so it’s easily comparable. From today Kim has a better understanding of what she is looking for and how everything works, so thats a big success.

Evening

We went and got some food from Noodlebox up the street. Curtis got a Pad Thai and Kim got Chinese fried rice.

We ate that and watched some TV and played some Need For Speed.

Kim went out to get an ice cream and some Red Bull for tomorrow morning, as we have an English test for our PR application fairly early, so we need to be up at a good time for that.

Energy will be required.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale