Tag: burger

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 569: Vancouver, BC – Rice Burger?

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a couple of meetings today.

The first was to discuss a process he had made and get feedback from the team on that and make the required changes.

After that, Curtis had some admin and tickets to do then he had another meeting with his whole team to discuss all the project work that they had done over the last 2 weeks.

Once that was done, Curtis had lunch and then after lunch was busy with tickets and some questions from people.

Right at the end of the day, he had to try and find out why a courier hadn’t delivered something he had sent out to a new hire but eventually it was delivered.

Kim’s Day

For the first time in a while Kim had a lazier Friday morning. After a little lie in Kim spent the day getting admin done. She had a impromptu meeting with a teammate at midday to go over sending a laptop to a new starter.

Listed new open roles and then had a surprise call with another teammate to go over a few HR things including social media posts about the new job openings.

For the rest of the day Kim got a lot of admin done and made some plans for next week!

Evening

After work, we led in bed for a bit and just relaxed before we ordered some dinner.

We got food from a place called Rice Burger which, as you would expect, make burgers with rice instead of buns.

Kim had a chicken katsu rice burger and Curtis knew it would be annoying to eat, so he just got a bowl which had lots of different meats in it as well as some sauces, vegetables and rice.

We got ourselves a side of curry potato croquettes and they were excellent! The rest of the food was pretty good, but nothing incredible.

We watched a film called Ladies in Black which didn’t really seem to have much of a point to it, but it was alright.

We walked out to Dairy Queen and got a dessert from there, then walked home and relaxed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 340: Vancouver, BC – Fjäll Raven Bag & Failed Comet Sighting

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a busy morning, with a lot of tickets coming in and a few questions being asked.

Curtis had his team meeting half way through the morning too, and did a few more tickets until lunch.

Once lunch was done, it was a little quieter but then it got a bit busier at the end of the day, with a few tickets coming in that Curtis dealt with.

Kim’s Day

Kim took her first call of the day from home and it was lovely! There was one familiar face and then three newbies who joined.

A while after Kim got in the office she had a meeting with her team in regards to events coming up and it went well! They loved the pitch from Kim’s colleague and they really liked Kims ideas for games and theme! After that meeting, two other colleagues joined Kim in passing over the information to their manager who also loved the idea.

Kim spent some time working on the invites and other communications for the events until she had her 1-1 with her manager. It was a wonderful catch up. They spoke about the events and the competition Kim is running.

For the rest of the afternoon Kim, finally, out her head down and worked on some return to office communications that she needed to finish. She is finally really happy with them as they cover the information that is needed and easy to read!

Fjäll Raven Bag & Failed Comet Sighting

We went out as soon as Kim was done with work, so we could make it to the Fjäll Raven store before it closed.

Kim wanted to get a bag from there as they’re comfy and compact…And they look great, of course.

As we were out, we grabbed some food from A&W. This was Curtis’ first time having it and he really did enjoy it.

We watched some TV, played some mini golf and then watched the first episode of the new season of Norsemen which is such a good series!

We then went out around 21:30 to see if we could spot the Neowise comet which was meant to be visible today.

We walked down to the harbour, about 30 minutes walk, but unfortunately, we waited until 22:30 but we didn’t see it at all.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 337: Vancouver, BC – Long Beach & Park Walk

Kim & Curtis Hale

We had a pretty relaxed morning after a not so good sleep last night.

Kim made some incredible crepes for breakfast, Curtis had syrup, cinnamon and strawberries whilst Kim had melted chocolate with strawberries.

We watched a bit of TV and then decided to get up and get ready.

We left the apartment all ready for a nice long walk, but first, coffee!

We stopped at Starbucks and grabbed some nice, cold, coffee to walk with.

We then walked down to English Bay, where we walked on the beach, dipped our feet into the water, but then kept walking on.

We walked all the way through to ‘third beach’, which is the third of three beaches, named ‘first beach, second beach & third beach’…Very inventive names!

We walked all the way across the seawall until we got to Stanley Park.

We walked through Stanley Park, which was great as we didn’t have the sun beating down on us for a bit.

We walked for a while through the park and then we turned around and started to walk back home, which was a while away!

We headed back home but with a stop to grab Kim an ice cream! It was very tasty, but melted VERY fast, so she had to sit down and eat it quickly in the shade, but that did give us time to watch some people play beach volleyball which was entertaining!

We eventually got home, very tired and very warm, excited to have a glass of water!

We had showers and relaxed and then played some mini golf on the Xbox for a bit.

Kim then made some Nandos-style chicken burgers and a salad for dinner which was so incredibly delicious!

We then watched some movies and TV!

All in all, a pretty great weekend!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 131: BC Lions Game!

Kim & Curtis Hale

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

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 105: Vancouver, BC – Short Weekend Getaway

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work and was pretty busy from the offset.

He didn’t have too much planned, but new tickets that came in filled the gap.

Curtis was meant to have a training session at 11:00 but this got cancelled so he had a bit more time to do things.

At 11:30, Curtis went for lunch with some people from the office. This happens each Friday, but Curtis usually doesn’t go, but fancied it today!

They went to Tap & Barrel for some food.

Curtis got a raspberry beer which was really good, as well as a southern fried chicken burger and fries.

Whilst eating, there was a big yoga session going on due to the Seawheeze event. This is a marathon organised by lululemon and they had a pre-marathon event in and around the convention centre.

Curtis got back to work and got back to trying to get the virtual machine sorted from the last week or so.

Curtis was able to move forward with it a bit, which was good, but it still isn’t complete!

Curtis had to walk home pretty quick so he was at the bus stop at the right time.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a long meeting that took up most of her morning, so she set up some snacks in the meeting room before everyone else went in. She also went through her emails and made sure that everything was sorted.

The meeting was for the wiki project that Kim has been working on for the past few months. There was an external consultant who was advising, this was great for support and guidance. There was a good outline of what content will be under the HR side of the site and what will be under the Facilities side. This is great becauae it means that Kim and the other lady in facilities can start making progress on their parts with a bit more confidence and certainty.

Kim then had half an hour between this meeting and her lunch meeting with Marriott so she sorted a few emails and went on a search for the coffee urn she used yesterday.

Kim and her colleague then went to the restaurant to meet the gentleman. They then had a great chat and he explained his role and how everything works. Kim ordered the chicken and waffles and they were wonderful! Everyone had a good catch up and ate. Then they ordered dessert so Kim had a tiramisu and it was delicious!

After the meeting and lunch Kim went and got the drinks for the Friday afternoon drinks and then set them all up in the fridge to cool. She then went across to the post office to send the letter she tried to send via FedEx the day before.

When Kim got back to the office she cleared out both fridges and freezers. It was so good to get rid of all the mostly empty takeaway containers and free up loads of space in the kitchen!

The final thing for Kim to do today was to set up for the afternoon drinks. Kim put out the snacks and the drinks and then left them to it as she was leaving at 4 today because she was in so early the day before.

Kim walked home, packed the bag for herself and Curtis. Then on the way to the bus stop she grabbed some sandwiches for the boat ride over to Victoria and waited for Curtis at the bus stop.

Weekend Away

We met at the bus stop and actually got there very early and waiting for around 30 minutes.

We got on the bus and then had a 45 minute ride to the ferry terminal.

Once we got on the ferry, we went straight to the coffee shop and Curtis got a coffee whilst Kim got a hot chocolate.

We sat and watched some Wipe Out on TV for the 95 minute journey.

Once we got off the ferry, it was another bus ride to the city centre.

We got into Victoria and walked up to Linda’s apartment!

We are here to celebrate Linda’s birthday (which is next week). We are only here until Sunday afternoon, but it should be a good fun weekend.

We relaxed for the remainder of the evening and caught up with Linda. We went to bed early as we need to be up for breakfast tomorrow morning!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 70: Vancouver, BC – Important Meeting & Dinner Out

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis arrived at work at 07:30 as he had to get the boardroom ready for the important global company meeting.

It took a whole hour from 08:00 to 09:00 for Curtis and his colleagues to join the meeting, test everything and get it all ready.

The meeting went well and ended around 10:15.

Curtis had his emails to go through after the meeting as well as checking on tickets.

After a very informative chat with his boss’ boss, he setup a mac for someone to replace their old oneand then gave them it. The were a few issues with connections, so Curtis did his best to assist with that.

During lunch, Kim popped by to see Curtis, brought him a coffee and swapped house keys.

After doing a few more tickets, it was time for Curtis to pack up and heas home early as he got to work so early.

Kim’s Day

Today there were no large meetings going on so no one required a fruit bowl today so Kim started her day by emailing candidates to see when they would be available for phone screens.

Yesterday Kim arranged some time with a colleague who recently joined to talk about the project Kim is helping with. It was really nice to meet the colleague and great to get their input of the project included. Kim then spent some time putting together information to send across to help the lady with our current plans and processes for the project.

As Curtis left the house earlier Kim had the front door key, so she decided this was a great opportunity to have a snoop at Curtis’s office. On the way she also grabbed coffees to enjoy. Kim got to the office and said Hello to the receptionist there who Curtis has mentioned has a similar personality to Kim, so it was really cool to meet her!

Kim the went back to the office and sorted a few things out before a quick call with a vendor to potentially set up a new ordering system! It was really interesting and could take a small chunk off of Kim’s plate! Win!

Kim then popped out of the office to pick up items for the Friday afternoon drinks. As it is Bastille Day on Sunday, Kim decided to do a French inspired afternoon, so she went out on a quest to find cheese, crackers and French wine! First she got the crackers and cheese and then she went to the liquor store to pick up wine and other drinks. Kim is actually out of the office in a few weeks so had the plan to buy extra of the next 2 weeks to cover her not being in. This meant she purchased larger boxes of stuff then normal and the store suggested she borrow a trolley! Kim only had to walk around the corner but that trolley was a life saver! She dropped it back off afterwards, picked up the post and then put all the drinks in the fridge.

Kim then spent some time organising the phone screens for the people who had responded and given their available times.

It was then time to set up for the Friday afternoon drinks. Kim organised 2 plates of cheeses, dried apricots, dried cranberries and two kinds of crackers! She then had some help setting up the drinks. Everything looked so pretty and Kim was super happy with how it turned out.

It was then time to socialise, the little cheese boards went down well and people enjoyed the wine!

Dinner Out

Once Kim got home, we relaxed for a bit and then went out for dinner.

We went to a place calles CRAFT beer market.

Kim had a chicken burger and Curtis had a flatbread pizza. Both were really good and we liked the place, but it was loud and big!

Kim had ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert.

Curtis was happy that he got to use his company’s payment webapp to pay, too!

CRAFT Beer Market | Vancouver, BC

Rating:- 8/10

We went back home via the drug store so we could get some supplies.

We watched a bit of TV and then went to sleep. We were both very tired.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Victoria,BC

Place 70 – Day 22: Victoria, BC – Free Chocolate Tasters & Korean Food

Kim & Curtis Hale

Morning

We had breakfast and then got ready for the day.

Kim spoke with her sister in the morning and then we watched some TV and videos.

Free Chocolates

We went downtown for a walk and to ask a question regarding our phone contract, too.

We went to a few chocolate shops to have a look around and also had some free chocolate tasters, which was a bonus!

We got a burger king for lunch as we wanted to see if we like it at all…Turns out, it was pretty nice.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit more before dinner.

Korean Chicken

We had some Korean chicken for dinner at a Korean pub.

We had sweet chilli chicken, creamy cheese corn & sweet and sour pork.

Our dinner was great, but a bit too much, so we took some leftovers with us.

Chimac Korean Pub & Fried Chicken | Victoria, BC

Rating:- 8.5/10

Evening

We got back and watched sone home renovation TV in bed whilst eating chocolates!

Lovely relaxing couple of days.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Portland,OR

Place 71 – Day 2: Portland, OR – Nob Hill & Brewery Tour

Kim & Curtis Hale

Free Breakfast

We didn’t pay for free breakfast, but we got it! There was only cinnamon & raisin bagels left, but that was perfect for us! We smothered them in butter and Kim had an orange juice whilst Curtis had some of the ‘Portland hostel blend’ coffee.

We got ready and then went out to have a walk around. We walked to Nob hill which is a ‘hipster’area of Portland. This is the top place to visit on tripadvisor so we thought we should take a look.

There were a lot of quaint shops here and it felt like a really nice, chill, neighbourhood.

We were walked back down the road and saw a ramen place and instantly wanted you have a ramen.

We shared a ramen as we knew it would be too big, but we got the most traditional which was pork broth, pork belly, noodles and an egg.

We ate our pretty good ramen and followed it up with some joto nigori sake, which we thought had a flavour between whisky and white wine.

Boxer Ramen | Portland, OR

Rating:- 7.5/10

Washington Park

We left and walked to Washington Park, which includes a few gardens. As it is cold, there were no roses blooming and all the gardens were pretty dull, unfortunately, but the park was nice to walk though. There was also a holocaust memorial there.

Mochi Ice Cream

We went to the supermarket and had a look around. Kim then found some mochi ice cream to buy.

Kim ate these once we got back to the hostel and she wasn’t too enthralled.

Brewery Tour

We saw a sign at the hostel for a free brewery tour, up the road at Kells.

We met our group at the reception of our hostel and we all then walked to the pub.

Once we got to Kells, we were met by the head brewer who was very passionate.

We started by tasting their lager which, for a lager, was tasty!

We moved onto their stout which Curtis though was better than Guinness.

We walked around the brewery whist the head brewer told us about the process. We even ate malt directly from the bag!

We got to look inside the vats and ask as many questions as we wanted.

We tasted some lager from the tap and then we all sat around with the brewer and had a pint whilst chatting about everything and anything.

All Packaged In House And Distributed

A Lot Of Spirits

Kells Brewery | Portland, OR

TourRating:- 10/10

Dinner

We were suggested a placed called North 45 for dinner, so our whole group went for some food.

There was us, another person from the UK, 2 Americans, 1 Brazilian, 1 Australian & A Japanese man.

Kim ate steak and Curtis had a burger.

The food was pretty good, but nothing too special.

North 45 | Portland, OR

Rating:- 6/10

Hostel Chat

We stayed up for a bit when we got back to the hostel and chatted with everyone we had met today and then it was time for bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 1: Kaitaia – An Octopus, Crabs & Clever Seagulls

Kim & Curtis Hale

We said goodbye to our HelpX hosts in the morning when they went off to work and then we had breakfast, got ourselves ready and tidied the room.

We left the house after packing the car and drove up to Kaitaia.

Kaitaia is our base town for a couple of things we want to do as it is in the perfect location.

We got to our accomodation, a nice B&B with a lovely pool and it also backs onto a river! The owner was nice enough to let us check in early and gave us some hints. It’s actually a really nice room! A little small, but really nice.

We got unpacked here and went to find some lunch.

We drove down to the town, parked up and walked around. There wasn’t much there, so we got a subway amd drove back to the room to eat it.

After lunch, we went out for a bit of the evening. We are near the 90 mile beach, which extends over a lot of Northland.

We got to a point called Shipwreck Bay, which we thought had a shipwreck there, but we didn’t see anything and we also had to either pay to park there or drive onto the beach, which we didn’t really want to do.

We drove back up the road and found the perfect parking spot (for free) and wandered onto the beach. There were a lot of rocks but we wanted to walk on them, so that is what we did! We walked towards shipwreck bay until we couldn’t go any further! Along the way, we saw fish & a lot of crabs in between the rocks.

As we were about to head back, Kim saw a crab sitting next to the water and took a bit of a closer look, whilst filming, and to both of our surprise, there was an octopus which decided it wanted the crab!

We stuck around this area for a while, watching the octopus move around and hoping it did something else. Low and behold, it did! It wanted to eat a fish, so it grabbed it.

We moved on from the octopus and then saw a seagull swoop down and grab a crab. It flew away with it and then drop it. It then picked it back up again, flew higher and dropped it again. We thought this was accidental but it turns out it was deliberate to try and crack it open, which it did!

We left the beach after walking back and stopped at the supermarket to get some drinks for the next few weeks.

We got back and watched some videos until we got hungry and then we went to one of the few places for dinner. Curtis got a steak with peppercorn sauce and Kim got a fancy chicken burger. Our food was alright but the service was awful so all in all we gave it a 5/10.

When we were back home, we watched some renovation TV shows on the TV we have in the room.

Tomorrow we have a cooked breakfast here at 08:30 so we’ll be up for that!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 376: Auckland – 2 Hour Massage, Ferry Trip & Afternoon Tea!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Kim had a massage booked for herself and her mum this morning, meaning Curtis and Kim’s dad (Tom) had nothing to do.

To combat having nothing to do, Curtis and Tom took a walk to a ferry port, about 35 minute walk away. The sun was beating down but there was a bit of wind so the walk was actually quite nice.

Once they got to the port, they had to wait for 30 minutes or so for the boat, so they sat and watched the world go by. They were right next to the harbour bridge so had a great view!

City_of_auckland_bridge_skytower_water

Once on the ferry, it only took about 10 minutes before arriving in the city.

Curtis took Tom the wrong way to the city, so they had a 30 minute diversion but it was nice! There was a hill to walk up followed by a park called Albert Park right by the university which had a gargantuan tree!

Big_tree_albert_park

They eventually got to the city centre and went to McDonald’s for a coffee whilst waiting for Kim & her mum.

Kim and Maggie had a terrific time with their massage! It was 2 hours of vigorous massage, but it helped them both greatly!

Feet_slippers_thai_massage

Massage_table

We met up again in the city and went for afternoon tea at a 5 star hotel!

We had an assortment of savory items, some scones and some sweet treats. There were sandwiches, curry pasties, macaroons, mini pavlova and more! We also had unlimited tea and coffee. This was very tasty and actually filled us up! Curtis gives it a 4.5/10 as nothing really blew him away. Kim gives it an 8/10.

Afternoon_tea

After we finished this, we waddled back to the car and drove home to relax for a bit, which didn’t happen!

Someone wanted to buy our bed, so we had to take that downstairs. Once we took it downstairs, we packed everything up and got it ready, both for our roadtrip and for leaving Auckland!

We got the room completely empty and tidy so that it could be shown to potential new tenants when we aren’t here.

We went out again in the evening to see Danielle and Josh and introduce them to Kim’s parents.

We went out to a BBQ place and the food was pretty good. Curtis had a 200G sirloin steak with bernaise sauce, chips & coleslaw. Meanwhile, Kim had a burger which had no bun but had fried mac & cheese as a replacement! Curtis gives his food a 6.7/10 and Kim gives hers a 8/10.

It was great to catch up with Josh and Danielle after such a long time and to introduce them to Kim’s parents.

Once we got home, we watched some YouTube videos and had dessert and then went to bed as we all need to be up early tomorrow.

We haven’t got a bed, so we are setup on the sofa/floor for tonight!

We are all flying together tomorrow! Should be fun but also tiring.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale