Tag: dog

United Kingdom

Place 92 – May 3 2022 to May 9 2022: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 – A Visit Home (Part 1)

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1 – Andover, UK

We came back to visit family in the UK!

It’s been 5 years or so since we’ve been in the UK so we thought it was time to visit the family and friends in our home land.

We arrived around 11:00, got picked up from the airport by Kim’s dad and then we went back to Kim’s parents’ place to stay.

We showered and went right out to get our first food item that we’ve been wanting to get for a while…A baguette!

There’s a baguette shop in our hometown (Andover) that sells terrific baguettes, so we walked down to get that and have some lunch.

We relaxed for a bit but stopping ourselves from sleeping after the long travel.

We went to see Curtis’ mum and then we both went with her to meet Curtis’ siblings from school and surprise them! They were surprised, as expected, and they both cried!

After picking up the kids from school, we stayed at Curtis’ family’s house for a bit and hung out with them until we got picked up by Kim’s sister, Abbie, and driven back to Kim’s parents’ for some Chinese food!

That was the end of the first day, which was mostly just getting acquainted with the timezone again and eating food.

Day 2 – Andover, UK

We finally got to take the dog out for a walk with Kim’s family. It was nice to see the doggo again too and be able to take a walk around places we used to walk around a lot.

We needed to go to the bank to get some boring admin stuff sorted but it was good to get that done. We had to visit 2 banks in total but we did it all in a day!

There was a bunch of stuff that we had left in the UK that we really needed to sort out. There was a large pile at each of our parents’ houses so we each had a bunch of stuff to sort. We spent a lot of this day sorting Kim’s items and deciding what to keep (which wasn’t much!).

We had some leftover Chinese for dinner and watched a movie.

Day 3 – Andover, UK

It was time for another dog walk! We took the dog out for another nice long walk and had some decent weather too.

We then went out for brunch with Curtis’ parents at a ‘new’ garden centre, which was really tasty and nice to hang out with them.

Before heading out, we stopped in at our first UK shop on our trip so we had a great time walking around there finding all the great snacks and seeing how cheap everything is!

We had to get ourselves a UK SIM card for whilst we’re visiting which we can also use in other countries, so we went into the town to buy one of those.

Curtis then went back to his family home and cleared out his items that he left 5 years ago and mostly just got rid of everything!

In the evening, there was a really lovely family BBQ at Curtis’ family’s house with a lot of his family as well as Kim’s family so it was a really great gathering with great weather.

Day 4 – Andover, UK

We went out for breakfast with Kim’s family down at a local pub and then went out to Basingstoke for some shopping and wandering around! We used to love going there for shopping and a few other things so it was good to see what was there and Kim was able to take a look at a few shoe shops, too, to see if she could find something she needed.

Once the evening came, we met with a bunch of friends and had some drinks and pizza! We hadn’t seen most of them for many, many years so it was a lot of catching up, chatting and having a really good time!

We found it easier to stay in Basingstoke, so we booked in to a Premier Inn, which is one of our favourite chain hotel brands in the UK so we wanted to stay there too!

Day 5 – Andover, UK

We had breakfast out at the pub again on this morning and then we went over to visit Kim’s sister at her house and see the house for the first time which was amazing to see!

We then had a really nice picnic in the garden as it was Kim’s mum’s birthday! This one was of our more relaxed days which was really nice to have.

Day 6 – Andover, UK

This was a day of meeting with our friends!

Kim met with 2 friends separately, Ashleigh & Eloise, and she had a bunch of really great conversations with them!

Whilst Kim did that, Curtis met with Shane, who was his best man at his wedding. He had lunch with him, and some drinks which was great to catch up. There was a lot to talk about.

We went out to Curtis’ auntie’s house to see her and her family and it was very, very nice to see them.

Dinner was at Curtis’ family’s house which was really nice to get some time with them and Curtis got some home cooking from mum!

Day 7 – London, UK

We took the train to London in the morning which was exciting! We love taking the train and it was super easy from where we used to live.

We did some walking around/shopping, as you do in London, before we went to meet Kim’s cousin, Bethany, in Camden!

Kim used to love going to Camden so we went there to go to the food market with her cousin, who is super lovely and we had a great time chatting and wandering around with her.

Once we finished up with Bethany, we took a train to a place we’d never been to before called Kingston. We met with a friend who lives there and had some dinner with her as well as a nice walk along the river.

We had to take a couple of trains to get back to Andover but we were close to the final train so we had to get a move on and do that! It took a while but we were able to get back home for some sleep after a really busy but amazing day!

We were away for a long time, so this is just part one, but it’s been a while since there were any blogs, but enjoy!

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Dec 25 2021 to Jan 16 2022: Vancouver, BC – Christmas, Snowboarding Another Dog & A New Job!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Christmas

Well hello! It’s been a while, as expected, but we have some recap to do!

Christmas happened and we had no plans, but that was great. We had a nice veggie roast and had some chats with our families throughout the day.

Snowboarding

Kim went out snowboarding with a colleague. They went for an evening and got back fairly late, but had a really fun time! Kim basically had to re-learn from scratch, but her friend was happy to teach her again.

Kim loved it so much and is going again this coming Tuesday!

Another Dog!

We fostered another dog! August, the previous dog, went on to a long term foster and we didn’t have a dog for a bit, but then we went down to the boarder to pick up Harper!

He’s a very good boy! He’s a German Shepherd, Husky, Malamute & retriever mix!

Very lovable dog who loves cuddles and we’ve loved having him around.

We took him out to Steveston today. He loves car rides and seemed to enjoy Steveston and meeting all the dogs. We let him run around a bit (on the lead) and he was having a great time.

A New Job!

Curtis is starting a new job in a week!

Curtis will be joining Legible, where Kim works, as their solo IT person (as a Senior IT Specialist). He’s very excited and glad to be able to get in and help them out with IT and also advance his career!

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Nov 3 to Nov 13 2021: Vancouver, BC – Fostered A Dog & Kim’s Birthday!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We fostered a dog!

On Wednesday 3rd November, Kim went out to the airport to help people unload dogs that had been rescued from China.

This took a very long time, about 3 hours or so, but after it was done Kim was offered a dog to foster! The foster had pulled out, so she got the chance to foster a 1.5 year old Samoyed for about a month or so.

The dog was so good! He was a little hyper when we got him and he did pee inside overnight on the first night, but other than that, he was awesome to have around!

We got him some toys, treats and a bed (which he doesn’t use) and just hung out with him for a bit.

On the Sunday, Curtis went to hockey and then Kim got an Uber out to catch his game a little later!

Whilst Kim was out, she setup cameras to check on the dog to see how he was. We weren’t sure how he is being left alone, but turns out he’s fine!

Unfortunately, once we got home, we took him out for a walk and he vomited many times. We then had to take him to an overnight vet, which took 3+ hours and we didn’t get to sleep until 4:30am!

The vet thought he was just a little sick and gave him a little medication and fluids to get him sorted.

The place we fostered from then complained that we took him to the vet and seem to be refusing to refund us for the treatment now, which is very fun.

He was sick for most of the week this week, but has now improved a lot!

We likely won’t foster again from these people, either, as they keep saying the dog will be leaving within the next day and then we hear nothing…It’s all a little crazy and we got no information on the dog, either!

Kim took him out today to hang out with another dog and her friend and he was a very good boy!

We did get to go out for dinner on Tuesday for Kim’s birthday, too. Kim’s friend came over to pet sit and we walked down to Gastown to a French restaurant we went to when we first moved to Vancouver.

The food was alright but the service was pretty awful. We probably won’t be heading back there.

We still have the dog now, even though we’ve been told he’s going 3 times! We are still awaiting a call from them to tell us more about the plan, but for now, we are having a great time chilling with the awesome, chill doggo.

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 988: Vancouver, BC – New Friends?

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up far too late, but tlwe slept great, which was good!

We had some breakfast and watched a bit of TV and then slowly got ourselves ready to go out.

The weather was better today, so we wanted to walk down to the beach. We got ourselves a coffee and walked down! The weather was actually perfect for a walk.

We saw a person in a replica batman suit, which was random but pretty cool looking!

We walked around for a bit and then started to head back home when we saw a big beautiful dog! We stopped to say hi and the owner was actually English, too!

We ended up having a very long chat with them and took their number. They’re a lovely couple and we’d probably like to meet with them again.

Once we got back home we decided what we were going have for dinners and then drove out to the supermarket to buy our weekly food.

After arriving back home, we made a homemade chicken tikka masala and Kim made homemade naan!

That took a while to make but it was certainly worth it. Delicious!

We watched a film whilst we ate and then it was basically bed time.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72- Day 911: Vancouver, BC – A Dog In A Lake

Kim & Curtis Hale

Early Hockey

Curtis managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before he woke up at 02:00 to watch Great Britain play hockey!

Curtis really enjoyed the game and Great Britain only lost 2-1 to Slovakia, which was a huge accomplishment.

Once the game was done, around 04:30, he went back to bed and got some good sleep in.

Finding A Sandwich

We woke up and had the same breakfast as yesterday and then got ourselves ready to head out for a walk.

We walked to Kitsilano beach again, but stopped a few times along the way to find a sandwich we could eat for lunch. Unfortunately, there were none we could find that we were interested in, so we didn’t bother in the end. We just got ourselves some coffees!

We walked around at the beach for a while and then it started to rain, so we walked back towards home.

We walked a long way back, to where we used to live, in our first apartment, just to give ourselves another route to walk around and a change of scenery.

A Dog In A Lake

As we were heading back home, we were distracted by a situation in which a dog had got into a lake and was chasing the ducks around. Dogs are meant to be on a leash in this area, so it was annoying a few people there. This went on for quite a while, until eventually the dog’s owner got into the lake and got the dog.

By this time, it was raining a little harder so we hurried back home, with a stop to a shop on the way back to get a few things.

Mac & Cheese

Kim made a terrific multi-cheese Mac and cheese for dinner which was great. We had that with a salad and homemade garlic bread and were thoroughly stuffed afterwards!

We went out for a bit of a walk and to get some things we forgot earlier from the shop, then when we got back home, Kim had a bath and relaxed.

We just relaxed for the rest of the night together and watched some TV before heading to bed. Curtis was noticeably tired today after his late night and early morning yesterday.

Tomorrow is a day off, in which we plan to do very little as the weather is not great.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 168: Vancouver, BC – Dogs!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work and right away someone grabbed him to assist with a visitor’s guest WiFi connection.

The fix was actually not that difficult, but it took Curtis and his colleague 30 minutes to realise what the actual issue was. Curtis’ coffee went cold whilst he did this too!

This quick start to the morning threw Curtis’ day off, so it took him some time to catch up.

Curtis had an onboard to complete, but before he could do that, he had a meeting with a potential software provider, so once he was done that, he got on with the onboarding.

The laptop was an absolute pain, so that took him some time, but he finally got it done and then had some lunch.

After lunch, Curtis caught up with some ticket work and did a few other things, such as reviewing policies and also some training for some new software.

Curtis met Kim and walked home.

Kim’s Day

Kim did a lot of the Wiki project throughout the day. The other things that cropped up were amazing!

Someone brought their bermesedoodle in and he was VERY well behaved and handsome. Another lady and her husband bought her two month old in a few times throughout the day so Kim had multiple cuddles and it was brilliant!

Some catering came over lunch and it looked amazing, so Kim spent some time setting that up and putting the fridge in the meeting room.

In the afternoon Kim popped across to the shop with her colleague and they picked up some flowers and decaf coffee as the coffee is the one thing that Kim forgot to order ahead of time!

The rest of the afternoon Kim was working on the Wiki project where she sorted through lots of old information to condense it down.

Easy Dinner

We got home and Curtis watched hockey. Kim then had to go out to do her energy exchange, so she walked up there and got a hot chocolate on the way!

Kim got back home after this and we didn’t know what to eat, so we just had sweet chilli chicken with rice and dumplings.

We watched some TV and went to bed pretty early. We were both feeling sleepy today!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

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

Kim & Curtis Hale

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

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 48: Vancouver, BC – Microsoft Talk & Pot Luck

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

The start of Curtis’ day was filled with assisting executives.

Once Curtis was done with the execs, he could move onto his other tickets as well as new tickets.

Curtis spent most of the rest of the day dealing with getting some new laptops setup.

At 16:45, Curtis and a few colleagues walked up to Microsoft!

After going into Microsoft, Curtis got a name tag and then grabbed a glass of wine before sitting down.

The president of Microsoft was in attendance and one of the people who was on the panel. This was a cyber security talk which Curtis got invited to, which was amazing! He got to both go to Microsoft, see the President of the company and hear a very interesting discussion regarding cyber security and specifically defence against democracy within cyber security.

This was a 1.5 hour event and afterwards he walked to meet Kim in a shoe shop.

Kim’s Day

Today there was another dog in the office! This is a wonderful week!

Kim spent most of the morning on ad hoc admin tasks! Things just kept coming and coming. She was due to have a call with a vendor but they just missed each other so have rescheduled for tomorrow.

The team said they wanted to head out to the food trucks for lunch. Kim and the team were all ready when Kim realised that the weekly Thursday pizza hadn’t arrived and it was 10 minutes late. Kim called the pizza company who then terminated the call due to not being able to hear Kim, so she called back, and explained that the pizza was now 15 minutes late. The company apologised, checked with the store and ensured that it would only be another 5 to 10 minutes maximum.

The team stood and chatted patiently but when Kim found out that there was still a 10 minutes wait she suggested they go ahead and she meets them there.
Another 10 minutes went by so Kim called back and was told she would receive a call directly from the shop, she did a few minutes later when they explained that the driver was having trouble parking and would be there shortly.

30 minutes after it was meant to arrive the pizza made it! Kim sorted it all out and realised she would only have 20 minutes to get to everyone, order and eat so decided to skip on the food trucks and just eat at work!

The afternoon totally sped by, Kim worked on her project and sent out a company wide email outlining what had happened and plans for what is coming up next.

Everything else was general admin that was thrown throughout the day.
Kim ended the day by setting up tomorrows orders that need to go through, people need their coffee and fruit!

After work Kim spent some time plodding around shops looking for bits and bobs.
Just before Curtis caught up with her Kim found the perfect new shoes! Now she will have less holey feet!

Pot Luck

We met up and Kim bought some shoes.

Once she did, we walked back home and got our items we had bought and went to the pot luck! This pot luck was for our apartment building and we got to meet a few really nice people who we chatted with for a couple of hours.

We got to see a beautiful sunset and also spoke to some people for Bosnia, which was interesting!

We got back home and watched some TV before heading to bed. A busy day, but all of it was fun!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 47: Vancouver, BC – Security Meeting & Dog At Work!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

As soon as he arrived at work, Curtis finished off the laptop cloning he started yesterday. It all went well and he returned the laptop to the user who was very happy to have more space.

Curtis joined in on a security & compliance meeting which he was interested to join, though the meeting didn’t last long at all.

Curtis then completed a few tickets and just before lunch he started to wipe a laptop and image it from fresh.

After lunch, Curtis continued getting the laptop sorted and was having some issues with it, so it took up a lot of the afternoon.

At the end of the afternoon, Curtis got out a new laptop and added some more RAM to it, followed by setting it up so it can be used in the future.

Kim’s Day

Kim did the usual when she got into work, breakfast and a catch up. Then suddenly Kim heard the jingle of a collar, she looked up and saw a cute tiny dog! This little dog spent the whole day at the office and visited Kim twice!

Kim then headed into her first social team meeting! It went really well and the team planned a lot of fun things for the coming months.

Then half an hour after that meeting, Kim went into a meeting with marketing and IT to discuss the next plans for the project. It was great to get a different viewpoint of it and direction on where people see the project going.

Kim then went back to her desk and actioned some of her talking points from the meeting.

Then Kim organised some food that had been delivered. Then pizza arrived that Kim hadn’t planned for! There is a weekly Thursday pizza order and kim was panicking thinking she had ordered 3 times the amount on the wrong day, then the delivery man realised he was on the wrong floor! Thank goodness for that!

It was then eventually lunchtime! Kim had to return the shoes she bought yesterday as they are just a size too small. Kim did that and then headed back to eat her lunch. For lunch Kim made a ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce and salad cream sandwich. This doesn’t sound exciting, but nowhere sells salad cream and its the first block of good cheddar Kim and Curtis have found in years!

Kim then got back to her desk and continued with general admin and then a few visitors came in so Kim ensured they had water and coffee.

Towards the end of the day Kim had a catch up about the project and ironed out some more details about the plan.

Costco

We went to Costco after work today as we have a Pot Luck at our apartment building tomorrown evening so we needed to get some things for that.

Appointment & Baked Potatoes

Kim went to an appointment in the evening and Curtis went to the shop to get some potatoes.

Curtis made the best baked potatoes ever, which were seasoned very well! We had beans and cheese on top of them, which was perfect!

We watched some TV and then headed to bed.

Curtis has his exclusive ‘thing’ he is doing tomorrow…He is very excited!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 26: Vancouver,BC – What A View

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got on the train and it turned out to be a bit less busy.

It felt like Curtis got to work pretty quickly today!

Once he got in, he grabbed himself a coffee and began working. He had some things to finish off from yesterday, as well as a bit more to learn.

As well as work, Curtis had some admin to get sorted, mostly new starter related items.

Meetings

Curtis had a couple of meetings, the first being a video call with all the IT team so they all met eachother and the second was another IT meeting but this time it was project related.

What A View

Curtis was able to get a photo of the view, which he has right behind him when he is sat at his desk…it shows Canada place and any boats that are there, as well as the seaplanes!

Purchasing

Curtis then got to work and the afternoon was pretty busy. Curtis picked up quite a few tickets and got to work on them, as well as figuring out what to do.

Curtis was then shown how purchasing works and had to get some stuff purchased for the office.

The end of the day came quickly and then Curtis headed to get on the train.

Train

The train wasn’t too packed on the way home, so that made the trip a little less stressful.

Kim’s Day

Kim did a bit less today, but didn’t get a lay in.

Kim took the dog out for a walk and then after the walk she took the train to the shopping mall to look for a work top.

Eventually, Kim was able to find just 1 top and then went to the supermarket.

Our Evening

Kim met Curtis from the train and we walked to the bank to get some banking sorted.

We came home and had a ceasar salad for dinner.

We watched some TV and did a bit of money admin before we went to sleep.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale