Tag: blog

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 397: Vancouver, BC – Dos!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had to catch up on a bunch of things after being away for a week, so he did that for most of the day.

A new round of computer checkups has started, too, so Curtis had some people to contact and setup a time to check some things on their laptops.

He had a team meeting at one point in the morning and then had to contact a bunch of people for the computer checkups.

As well as this, Curtis had to coordinate and plan for some new people starting, which Curtis has to head to the office for tomorrow to setup some laptops and send them out.

Curtis did some tickets and some other admin and then was done for the day. It went very fast and was very busy!

Kim’s Day

Kim spent a good portion of her morning catching up on emails and messages. She took some time to check on incoming laptops and ensure that they were all on their way or received and she looked into a few company updates that went out. Kim also sent out a charger to a remote worker.

After shipping out the charging cable Kim went through her voicemails. Most of them were for her colleague so she wrote up all the phone notes and sent them over.

A laptop had been returned to one of the offices, but it is now required back in the Vancouver office. So Kim spoke with an employee from that office and arranged that they will send it back. Kim put the paperwork together and sent it all over to the colleague who will help out.

In the afternoon Kim spent more time on the hoodies that need to be sent out over the coming weeks. She has a preset page on a spreadsheet for sheets of stickers and started adding employees addresses there so that the ink doesnt smudge and Kim has to write less.

Dos!

When Kim got home, we made some sandwiches for dinner. Kim had brie, mushrooms and shallots in her sandwich with mustard.

Curtis had wagu steak, mushrooms, shallots and mustard in his.

We ate these and watched some TV and then we played some Dos, which is made by Uno, and is similar but has some different rules, of course. Kim bought this for Curtis for his birthday, but it only arrived today!

We figured out how to play that and played it for way longer than we probably should have!

We watched some TV for the rest of the evening and then headed to bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 396: Vancouver, BC – Sunday

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up and spoke with Curtis’ family for an hour or so, which was a really nice catch up.

We had breakfast after this, which was similar to yesterday’s.

We did pretty much nothing for the rest of the day. Played some games, watched some TV shows.

We had some leftovers for dinner from yesterday’s delicious fried rice and then we went down to Dairy Queen to get a blizzard ice cream!

We got back and watched some TV, then Kim had a bath and relaxed.

We finished the evening with a hot chocolate and then headed to bed, ready to go back to doing work again.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 395: Vancouver, BC – We’re Back

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up and had a nice big cooked breakfast and watched a bit of TV whilst eating.

We eventually got ourselves ready and made our way out of the apartment to get the weekly shop done.

It turns out, we chose the worst time to do this as there were far too many people and it was awful!

We got back home and then went out to get a coffee.

We came back home and watched some TV, played some games and then Kim made some dinner, which was something homemade which we obviously didn’t have whilst in Whistler!

Kim made egg fried rice with fried chicken which was terrific!

We ate that and watched some TV for the evening. We don’t plan on doing much this weekend, just relaxing from the week just gone.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Whistler, BC

Place 87 – Day 4: Whistler, BC – Quad Biking!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast, Of Course

We had a small breakfast from Purebred of just a coffee and a croissant.

We ate this quickly and finished off getting ready for the day, and then checked out, which we were able to do by phone, which was great.

We got everything into the car and then went for a bit of a final walk around Whistler.

We got ourselves some drinks for the day and the went back to the hotel to grab the car.

Alpha Lake & Nita Lake

We drove out to a couple of lakes near where we were going just to pass the time before our activity.

We just had a walk around and chatted for a bit, but it was actually a little cold.

Kim thought it was a good idea to go on the swing…But she then realised it was not.

We finished walking around these lakes and got back to the car to drive to the quad biking place.

The check engine light came on, which wasn’t ideal, but we managed to make it there fine.

Quad Biking!

For Curtis’ birthday, Kim got us a quad biking tour close to Whistler.

We got there and there was just 2 other people joining us for our tour, which was excellent!

We set off on some big quad bikes and did a bit of practice to acclimate to the bikes and ensure we were safe.

We began our tour and it was actually a little technical! There were a lot of stones around to navigate over, but we got to the first viewpoint pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, as with everything at the moment, the view wasn’t very good due to the smoke, but there was a nice river.

We continued on and went up a mountain which was pretty difficult with much larger rocks to get over and some steep hills but we made it to the top!

Again, there is meant to be a good view, but it’s not a very good time for views at the moment.

We had to ride back down the mountain and that was tough as we didn’t want to go too fast over the rocks, but it was incredibly fun and made us think and consentrate for sure.

We got down this part and had a nice flat part we could go fast on and then we came to a thin forest track which was challenging but great!

We then moved into a section that was in a forest still but with a lot of puddles on corners, which got us wet and dirty, especially the one big puddle!

We then headed back to the camp after around 1.5 hours of riding. We had a really great time overall and actually want to come back!

Home Time

We left here (with our check engine light on still) and drove home.

We got home in about 2 hours and were incredibly tired, but glad we got home even though we had a check engine light on.

We booked our car in for Wednesday and then we relaxed!

We had some frozen pizza for dinner, unpacked and relaxed for the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 394: Vancouver, BC – Holiday Time!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis and a meeting at 09:30 which was to show someone around some software and see if he can help them with any questions they had.

After that, Curtis had his weekly team meeting which lasted for about an hour and then after that, the day got crazy!

Curtis did constant ticket work until lunch time, and then after that he had a meeting with his team to talk about some survey responses and statistics.

After that, Curtis had a bunch more work to do and had to reach out to some people, as well as ensure he didn’t have any work left for during his vacation for the rest of the week.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by working on some emails she plans to send out when she gets back from her leave for the rest of this week. In the morning she also set up an ad hoc visit for someone to work from the office, a return for a laptop and sent out a gift card.

In the afternoon Kim set up a couple of hot desks, just in case someone wants to come in while she is away. Then its all set up and someone else doesn’t have to do it! Then for the rest of the afternoon Kim sorted her expenses.

Evening

Kim got back home as Curtis was just finishing off our baked potatoes for dinner.

We ate those and watched some TV and then we went down to 7-Eleven and Kim got an ice cream there.

We got home and Curtis ate the remaining ice cream we had at home and Kim ate her ice cream.

We did some packing to be ready to leave tomorrow and we got a few things sorted throughout the evening, such as vacuuming and ensuring all the dishes were done etc.

We aren’t up too early tomorrow and we have a few things to get done then we’re off for a brief drive!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 393: Vancouver, BC – Mello Doughnuts

Kim & Curtis Hale

Preparing

We woke up pretty late and had the remaining croissants for breakfast.

It took us a while to get going today, but we did eventually.

We got showered and then we started to do some packing! We are going away from Tuesday – late Friday (nowhere too far, but it should be fun!), So we needed to pack, of course.

We packed a bunch of things and decided what we need to take, also.

Mello Doughnuts

Once we did that, it was about 16:00 and we decided we wanted to get a doughnut!

We found a place which was a 20 minute walk, but it had great reviews and the flavours sounded good, so we took the walk there.

The area it was in wasn’t the greatest, but we queued up and got our doughnuts!

Kim got a chocolate old-fashioned and Curtis got a lemon doughnut.

We didn’t eat them right away as it was nearly dinner time, so we saved them for dessert.

Pirates of The Caribbean

We got home and had our dinner, which was just some sweet and sour chicken with rice, peas and sweetcorn. But, before we did that, we had a Vietnamese coffee, because why not!

We watched Pirates of The Caribbean (the first one) whilst we ate dinner.

Once we did that, Kim had a relaxing shower and did a facemask, then we watched some more TV.

We have work for just one day tomorrow, and then we’re off for our small trip!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 391: Vancouver, BC – Bao & Taiwanese Food

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis started his day having a discussion with his team about some software that the team supports but doesn’t know much about. He had to reach out to someone and setup a meeting to ensure they know how to use this software and help with any questions.

Curtis did a lot of tickets and was meant to have a meeting about a possible new piece of software but that meeting was rescheduled.

After lunch, Curtis had a long team meeting which was regarding project work and what has been done over the last few weeks, what needs to be done and what can be improved.

Kim’s Day

Kim hosted one of the social calls in the morning from home and then she went into the office. She spent a lot of her day working on and improving her emails that she will be sending out. As she is away for most of next week Kim wants to make sure she has as little to worry about as possible when she gets back. She also arranged a couple of returning laptops too.

In the afternoon Kim hosted the east coast coast call, which was good fun. She quickly had some lunch before a 1-1 with her manager. It went well! Kim updated her with the progress of changing the office layout and went over a few things she will be doing over the next couple of days.

Before the last social call of the day Kim went over her emails with her colleague, just to be sure she hasn’t missed anything. Then they also discussed the plan for the next couple of days and started to build a timeline of how the work will be done when Kim gets back from her leave.

To finish the day Kim joined the west coast social call and had a great chat with from loads of places, it was so lovely. Kim then wrote up the notes from her chat in the afternoon and headed home.

Bao & Taiwanese Food

We had Taiwanese food for dinner once Kim got home.

We ordered from Jingle Bao which, as you would assume, specialises in Bao.
Curtis got some pork based bao and we got some orange chicken, salt and pepper chicken and rice to share.

The bao were terrific but the rest of the food wasn’t great.

We watched the film The Nigerian Prince which was actually pretty good but the ending was not great.

We then watched some more TV and played some games.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 390: Vancouver, BC – The Megadesk Lives!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis did some tickets and then at 10:00 he had a 1 hour long Norwegian lesson! He had a really good time doing that and again, as like last time, it was a full Norwegian conversation which was excellent.

After this, there were a lot of tickets for Curtis to do and then after lunch he walked to the office.

Whilst at the office, Curtis noticed a server had an error on it! Luckily, it’s not fatal, but some parts need to be fixed or replaced.

Curtis got a new monitor from the stock room and got that ready for someone to pickup, which is why he was at the office.

The person collected the monitor and Curtis went back home again, but with a stop at a Starbucks to meet with Kim briefly and to get a coffee.

Curtis did a bit of admin when he got home and then was done for the day.

Kim’s Day

Kim spent the morning labelling peoples desks that she will clear out. For some she was able to use their instructions over messenger to find their desk and for others Kim had to call them and be directed.

She also took some time to draft up some emails she will send out over the coming weeks as had a brainwave of communication that she wants to say. So she quickly wrote it all down while she could remember!

In the afternoon Kim moved all the monitors from the desks where they were being stored and moved them to another area in the office so she could work on setting up the first couple of mega desks.

About halfway through reorganising the furniture Kim went and met the vendor for the plants to let her into the office and Kim took a little break a while in to go and meet Curtis for a coffee.

Once Kim had removed all the furniture she started measuring out the distance between the banks of desks and also put a few of the drawers that are not being used under the desk for storage. Kim then emptied a few of the desks and stored those items under the new desk.

Once Kim finished the desks she worked on emptying other people’s desks. She cleared the tables, put everything into their drawers, labelled the items and tagged the table so she knew it had been done. It was a very successful day and Kim is happy with how quickly the desks come together when the spaces is empty.

Evening

When Kim got home, we took out the recycling and we then had some homemade tomato and mushroom pasta!

We watched some TV and played some games, but not much as it was almost 21:00 by the time we finished eating.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 389: Vancouver, BC – Post Work Nap

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

The start to Curtis’ day was quite slow.

Curtis had a 1 on 1 meeting and then a team meeting after that.

He got some admin completed and then some tickets before he had another team meeting to discuss some process changes and then he had some lunch.

After lunch, Curtis did a bunch of tickets, which all seemed to come in at once. Most of these were giving permissions to people, though one was getting some usage stats for someone.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day with a donut catchup with someone in the UK and someone in Boston! It was so lovely to just relax and hang out. It was an easy-going conversation too!

After this Kim took the car to pick up some plastic spray bottles for the office from canadian tire. She dropped those off at work while she picked up a load of stuff that she is donating to a local youth centre. It was another cars worth, so when she got to the centre, she parked out back and unloaded the car. Its cleared out so much space in the office and Kim also took some stuff from home too!

After Kim had been in the office for a while she hosted a game time. As connect four was so successful last time Kim decided to try it again. 3 other people joined and everyone played everyone and it was so much fun!

She then updated Survey Monkey to a paid account as on the free version Kim was only able to view the first 40 responses. As its been updated, Kim is now able to export the information. This means that some of the work she did yesterday is pointless, bur it saves kim some work going forward.

Kim grabbed some lunch in mid afternoon and then spent the last bit of the day working out who is okay for Kim ro clear their desks. As Megadesk has been okaied Kim now has to empty out all the desks. Some people will come in to clear their stuff themselves, but for some desks Kim will box stuff up, label it and store it around the office.

Post Work Nap

After Kim got home, we had a lay down and ended up having a nap! It did Kim wonders and she felt amazing. Curtis on the other hand didn’t feel great, but eventually he woke up a bit.

We played some Tony Hawk and then Kim went off to pole, which she was very refreshed for now!

When Kim got home, we had homemade chicken nuggets with curly fries for dinner and watched some TV.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 388: Vancouver, BC – Long Awaited Pro Haircut

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis started the day by changing someone’s name across all platforms which was actually very seemless and he was very happy with how it worked out.

After that, Curtis had his weekly team meeting which lasted last time than usual.

Curtis did a lot of tickets after this, and was working with an ongoing Zoom issue for someone.

Post lunch was much of the same. He eventually got the Zoom issue sorted and was able to do some other tickets, too.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by logging the responses she received from the survey. It looks like exporting the information is a paid feature, so Kim has a fair bit of data entry to do!

After this Kim put a link to a discount page for Grouse Mountain. This would have been very useful last week as this was the mountain Kim and Curtis went to on Saturday. Never mind! She then spent some of the morning drafting up a couple of options for the next phases track and trace log. She isn’t too sure which she feels it the best way so she made both and will see what other people think.

In the afternoon Kim went to Staples to get some mailing pouches that will fit the hoodies in them. She found the only box in the store and then went back to the office.

Once she was in the office Kim packaged up a hoodie and it worked perfectly! So she then took it to the post office to make sure that the postage the meter gave her is the right amount. Its a good thing she checked as it wasn’t! Its good to know now so that when she does the big send out she will just take them all to the post office and do it all there.

Kim then went through all of the stationary that she hadn’t finished organising and either put it away in the cupboard or got it ready to be donated.

Long Awaited Pro Haircut

Kim left work and walked home, dropped off her things and went to get her haircut!

She’d been waiting for a professional haircut for a long while and was very happy she was finally able to get one.

Once Kim was back from her haircut, we had pesto chicken pasta for dinner and watched some TV, as well as played some games.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale