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Place 72 – Day 136: Vancouver, BC – All Day Typing & Post Work Massage

Curtis’ Day

As made apparent from the title, Curtis’ day was a lot of writing (technically typing).

He started the day with some admin and then doing a couple of tickets, but he did have it planned to get guides written for his project. There are around 8 guides to get written, so Curtis has to get those all done, and ASAP!

Curtis just did those all day and got half done, which is better than none.

Curtis walked home and there was no rain, which is much better, and then he watched the last 2 periods of the leafs game.

He had leftover Thai curry which he cooked up some chicken for and ate.

Kim went out to exercise and Curtis played some games.

Kim’s Day

This morning Kim had to grab a cake for a team so she headed to the shop up near home and planned to take a taxi in. She called for a taci before going in to.the store, but as the answered the line cut out. So kim grabbed the cake and waited outside while she called again, it took 5 minutes to get through and there was no estimated arrival time.

While Kim was at the bus stop waiting for the taxi a police escort came down the road and blocked it off, then came a group of cyclists followed by more police and an ambulance or 2. The best part was that the police van was playing ACDC, a great way to start a morning!

When the taxi eventually arrived Kim made her way into work and was about 30 minutes later than she had anticipated! Kim then hid the cake at her desk before running back out to post a letter and pick up some dairy free cakes.

While she was out in the morning Kim was asked to do some printing, so she got all of that sorted.

During the morning Kim felt very strange, she had a pounding headache, felt neasous and had funny vision. So Kim took 5 and sat in a meeting room to see if it would pass, and then went and grabbed some fresh air on the roof. This helped a fair amount.

It was then cake time! So Kim arranged the main cake in the kitchen, but hid the dairy free ones! There was a nice little talk and then everyone grabbed some cake.

As she still wasnt feeling 100% Kim then changed her settings on her computer to cause less of a strain on her eyes, this was Curtis’s great idea and he walked her through how to do it over the phone! He is so wonderful and really does take good care of Kim.

This helped immensely and throughout the course of the day all the issues went away! During the call, the gentleman who put on the presentation snuck Kim some cake, which was very appreciated.

Kim then took some time to go through the emails received today and had a little catch up with her team mate who had been in another office for the past week.

It was then lunch time, and despite Kim saying that she would sort her lunch in the morning and to no surprise to Curtis, Kim had not made her lunch. As she had felt so groggy in the morning Kim decided to get a McDonald’s, and she picked a great day to as well, she got a free cheeseburger! So she grabbed her lunch and then went back to eat. She ended up in and out of her seat for the first half of her lunch sorting things out for people!

Kim then spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on the invoices. Its going to be like that for a fair few days as she hadn’t saved an invoice until yesterday since the 4th September. Kim is very glad to announce that she is now up to the 9th September!

In the middle of the invoices Kim had a bit more of a proper meeting with her colleague, mainly a catch up from the last week and plans on the Christmas parties. Kim ended up giving a great idea for the UK office that will possibly be used, so that was great!

After work, Kim used her benefits to get a quick massage. She had booked herself in for a 30 minute neck and back massage to sort out her painful shoulder, but as a result of her morning, Kim changed it to a head, neck and back massage and it was alright!

Kim class today was good! The conditioning nearly killed her and she was utterly rubbish at it all. She was able to nail some of the moves which was great.

Bake Off, Again!

Kim got back from exercise and we watched the latest bake off episode before sleeping.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Place 72 – Day 135: Vancouver, BC – Galaxy Watch!

Curtis’ Day

Curtis’ day was filled with project work and meetings. He had a brief moment where there was no meeting, but he then had to join one!

Curtis got a lot of more of his project work sorted as well as some tickets.

During the day, Curtis received the gift he bought for himself.. a Galaxy Watch!

Curtis has been having a great time playing with the watch and loves the look of it!

Curtis walked home (in the rain) and when he got home, he spent far too long playing on his new watch!

Kim’s Day

Kim did have catering to be in early for this morning so she got to work for 8 and the catering was already there! So she got to work setting the other drinks up and collecting the last few snacks.

As she had ordered a cake for her office for this week she also had to order a cake for one of the other offices so Kim spent some of the morning organising that and finalising a few peoples travel plans.

When the catering arrived for lunch Kim got more drinks ready and plated up a nice selection of veggies to go with it all. Once it was all set up Kim popped out to post some letters and exchange one of the things Kim bought for Curtis yesterday.

When she got back, she cleared away the lunch stuff, refreshed some drunks and the coffee and then sat down for some lunch.

After lunch Kim spent most of her afternoon going through invoices that she had not saved since the 3rd of September. On the 4th, she received 14 in a matter of hours so it all went out of the window and she is now just finding the time to claw back at it all. Kim also put some fruit, snacks and more drinks into the meeting room around mid afternoon.

Later in the afternoon, Kim was saving an invoice and noticed that well over half had vanished. Kim then spent some time looking into what might have caused this before asking IT for help. They were eventually able to figure out that they had been deleted, which was great news because that means that they are recoverable and not corrupted and broken files.

As this all happened Kim called the group in the meeting some taxis and waved them on their way. She then took the time to clear up the meeting room!

Tonight’s self training class was amazing. Kim picked up 3 or so moves from.when she trained 2.5 years ago. She is really starting to feel things click into place and come more naturally. Kim has also finally picked a song for the competition in November, so she started some basic dance to that in preparations.

MaCallan

Kim bought Curtis some MaCallan whiskey as he’s been wanting to try it!

We sat and watched TV together for a bit and then Kim went off to exercise.

Kim had a great time and then when she came home, we caught up on our TV shows and had a whiskey!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Place 72 – Day 134: Vancouver, BC – Happy Birthday To Curtis!

Curtis’ Day

Last night, at the stroke of 00:00, Kim gave Curtis his presents she had bought him!

One was an Amazon Echo Dot which is awesome. That should allow us to do some cool stuff at home and it’s just generally pretty useful!

The second was an alpaca ornament, which is amazing as Curtis LOVES alpacas.

Curtis then got a gift which he knew about, which was a slim wallet so it doesn’t take up so much pocket space. Its perfect!

When Curtis woke up this morning he remembered he gets a free Starbucks coffee for his birthday, so thought about getting it on the way.

Unfortunately, all Starbucks’ were too busy, so he didn’t bother and decided he would get it later on.

As soon as he got to work, he was asked to look at something and then was steadily busy from that point on.

He was able to get a lot done and a lot of it was project work. His team now has a project manager who was assisting Curtis and they’ve been able to get a lot further along now, which is excellent and Curtis feels great about it.

Curtis got a package whilst he was at work! It was two hats he ordered from Syndicate Original which he’s wanted to get for a while. They are great! He also should have another package coming tomorrow…his own birthday present!

Kim’s Day

Kim knew she had external visitors in this morning so she left a little early to make sure she was in for 830ish. Turns out that the visitors weren’t due to arrive until 10-11ish.

So Kim used the time wisely and booked in for a cake that is needed for later in the week and placed a order for pizzas for same day delivery.

Then Kim set up for the meeting by making coffee and grabbing some drinks from the fridge. The fruit then arrived so Kim took some of that to make a little fruit bowl too.

Kim then greeted the visitors and took everything up to the meeting room.

Shortly after this the catering arrived so Kim hid it around differnt fridges and left menacing notes to hungry office people!

Finally Kim then had some time to go through emails and catch up on some other stuff. The pizza arrived a bit before midday so Kim sorted all that before going on to the other catering. She collected more drinks, loaded the cart with all the food and headed upstairs! After she had unpacked she realised she didn’t have spoons so she grabbed those and went back up. Then she realised that some drinks had already run out so she went to top them up!

After this Kim ran out to pick some stuff up for the meeting tomorrow. When she made it back she grabbed some pizza before grabbing a new urn of coffee, a few replacement drinks and went up to the other floor to clear away the food.

When she got back to her desk after having some pizza for lunch Kim organised a hotel for someone visiting next week, which was great as the prices seemed so high!

Kim then took the afternoon snack up to the meeting and gave them a refresher of some other drinks also.

After this Kim spent most of her afternoon picking up emails and she managed to orgnaised 3 peoples business cards too.

Later in the afternoon Kim got the go ahead to clear up in the boardroom so she went and sorted that out before leaving.

Kim stopped at a couple of shops on the way home to pick up some stuff for Curtis!

Best Hockey Game Ever

We had the leftovers of yesterday’s dinner for dinner tonight. It was just as delicious as before, as expected.

We watched a bit of TV and spoke about our day and then we left at 19:30 to head to the ice rink, with more time than last week, just in case.

Curtis’ hockey game was one of, if not THE, best hockey games he has ever played! Not in terms of statistics, but it was very close, competitive and just fun overall. His team played amazing and won 2-1 against a team that was definitely better!

We drove home and just chilled out.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Place 72 – day 133: Vancouver, BC – Perfect Pre-Birthday Sunday!

Breakfast

Kim went out and got breakfast for us, which was from McDonald’s.

We watched some YouTube videos and then got showered and ready for the day.

Family Chat

We had a long 2 hour chat with Curtis’ mum, discussing all kinds of things. It was good to catch up!

After this, we just watched some more TV and then Kim went out to the shop a got some things we needed for dinner.

Dinner

We had a chicken and vegetable pasta, with a BBQ sauce.

We watched Peaky Blinders and then headed to bed.

Pretty lazy day, but perfect.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Place 72 – Day 132: Vancouver, BC – Whiskey Flights & Fancy French Meal!

Shopping & Coffee

As with every weekend, we did some shopping and grabbed a coffee before anything else!

We had breakfast, got ready and then went out to get something from London Drugs. Then, after that, we went to Homesense to find some perfect whiskey glasses to have for home, which we did! We had to queue for a while but eventually got them purchased and then went to Starbucks to get a coffee.

We had our coffee in Starbucks for a bit, but then went back home so others could sit down. The weather was bad, so coffee shops were busy!

We got back home and Kim took her shoes to the cobbler to get the. Heals re done. Whilst out, she saw a few dogs, one of which was a collie mixed with a German shepherd which was very cute! She then had a hug with a kitten before going back to pickup her shoes.

Whiskey Flights!

Once Kim got back, we started getting ready to go out.

We took the train down to the city and walked for 10 minutes up to a pub which has a whiskey bar out back!

We got in and got our flights of whiskey. Kim went for the Scottish, where as Curtis went for the recommended one from the barman which was the cherry aged whiskeys.

Along with our whiskey, we had a meat and cheese board, which was phenominal!

Shebeen Bar | Vancouver, BC

Our Rating:- 10/10

We had some great chats with the bar staff but then had to leave so we could make it to our dinner reservation, but we had a Jameson Mule before we left!

Fancy French Meal

Kim booked in a French meal, which we were very excited for! We each got a glass of wine and then some free bread, just before our mains arrived!

Jules Bistro | Vancouver, BC

Our Rating:- 9/10

Kim got a tenderloin steak with scallion potatoes as well and ratatouille, and Curtis had a terrific rack of lamb which came with potatoes and corn.

For dessert, Kim had a chocolate & caramel pudding and Curtis had a cappucino, which was the best he has had in a while!

We finished our food, paid up and walked back home.

Once we got back home, a little tipsy, we got some admin done and then watched the latest Suits episode before going to sleep.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Place 72 – Day 131: BC Lions Game!

Curtis’ Day & Evening

Curtis’ day was steady today, which was perfect!

At 11:30, Curtis had an early, and long, lunch. Someone in one of the teams he works with is leaving, so it was a leaving lunch.

They went to a place called Black & Blue which is quite an upmarket meat place, but they do a great lunch deal!

It was $14 for a burger and a beer, so everyone got that and it didn’t disappoint!

Black & Blue | Vancouver, BC

Rating:- 9/10

The burger was great quality, the sauce was great and the accompaniments were tasty!

Curtis got back to the office at 13:30 and next thing he knew it was 15:30!

Curtis was asked about something he had setup and then someone said something about it which meant Curtis had to review it as he wasn’t informed of the full scope, so that took up some time.

After this, Curtis offboarded the leaving person and then had just enough time to had a quick beer with everyone before walking home.

Once he got home, he played NHL20 all night as it has come out! Borderlands 3 also came out and Curtis purchased this too, but was too engrossed in playing NHL he never got a change to play it.

Kim’s Day & Evening

As Kim had been worming a few days early and late, she decided to come in an hour late.

Once she got in Kim restocked the fridge before heading down and picking up the mail.

Kim then spent some time picking uo.older emails and taking calls and then suddenly it was midday! Kim went to the shop with 2 team mates to.get some lunch, just before she ordered Kim realised she left her wallet on the desk.

Kim went back to get it and then picked up a chicken pot pie with mash and gravy as the weather was miserable. She then had lunch with a few colleagues and had a nice chat.

After lunch Kim put the weekly order through and cleaned the boardrooms whiteboard ahead of some meetings that are happening next week.

She also was in discussions with the caterer during the afternoon.

Kim then went to the liquor store nice and early to make sure things had a good amount of time to cool.

When Kim got back she went straight into a meeting with the other fire warden from yesterday to catch up on what happened, to tweak the plan and talk about any procedures they want to put in place.

After this meeting Kim started to look inti some travel for someone coming to visit. Kim had to reach out to hotels directly in order to get a gosod rate.

Kim oversaw the set up of the alcohol today. She was 3 minutes late to setting it up so the IT team emptied the fridge and set it up. Kim grabbed the snacks and cut up the lime for the coronas.

Kim then went back to her desk to finalise the hotel reservation and book the flights.

When that was all done Kim joined some colleagues in a card game that is hiring orientated but similar to cards against humanity and it was great fun.

Kim then left to head to the Canadian football game.

She headed over to a local hotel to join everyone else in taking the taxis over to the arena where they all watched the game in the box.

Kim also met some ex players and other cool and interesting people.

Champions ring!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Place 72 – Day 130: Vancouver, BC – First Hockey Game in Canada!

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work and had a cold brew that Kim got him and it wasn’t great and actually made Curtis feel a little unwell.

Curtis got a few ticket in the morning and some were a bit more complicated which was excellent for him, making the time go fast.

After lunch, which Curtis ate even though he didn’t feel too good, he was kinda out of things to do, but started doing part of a project which was to write up policies.

The later and later it got in the day, the closer it got to hockey time, so Curtis was getting more and more nervous!

Curtis left and found and umbrella at work, so took that to walk home with!

Kim’s Day

This morning there was no catering, but Kim was in a 2 hour fire safety warden training so that ate up most of her morning. After the course Kim caught up on her emails, mainly with a supplier and the caterers for next week.

Then the weekly pizza came in so Kim sorted that out before jumping on a call with the regular catering company they use to discuss the trail that Kim had used. They talked about a few tweaks Kim wanted to make. It was a really successful call.

Then the fire drill started. Kim grabbed her high vis and ushered everyone out of the building and then spent the time hearding cats to try to get everyone in the same place!

After the fire drill kim and the other new fire wardens had a debrief.
When she got back to the office, Kim took 5 to have a sit down as it was almost 3! Then she rememebrred that she had a 3pm deadline to contact the hotel that she was speaking to yesterday to fully resolve the issue. She sorted all that and then put the remainder of the doughnuts from yesterday out!

Kim then spent most of the rest of her day listening to voicemail messages and picking through the backlog of emails she has.

First Hockey Game In Canada!

Can’t say it went well…

We got back home and had some pizza and then watched some TV. Around 19:15, we left and got into the car, heading to the Richmond Olympic Oval.

The traffic was abysmal and even when we got there, there was a queue to drive into the parking.

The parking is meant to be $2 per hour, but it didn’t give us a ticket so we parked for free!

We got a spot and then as Curtis was walking, he slipped on the wet floor and broke his flip flop, so he had to walk barefoot for the rest of the way.

The arena is huge, but we each finally found our spots.

The changing room was massive, and there is 8 of them, so Curtis had plenty of room!

After a brief changing room discussion, it was warm up time…And then game time!

It started well and Curtis’ team were actually able to get the first goal.

It was a very close game and Curtis had some good chances, but the game ended 6-1 the other way! Technically, it was 9-1, but after a 5 goal lead, the goals stop counting.

Of course, handshakes at the end

After the game, we drove home and were super tired. Now here we are, writing the blog!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale