Tag: drop off

Oslo

Place 93 – May 21 2022 & May 22 2022: Oslo 🇳🇴 – New Favourite City?

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1

We woke up for our last day at the farm and we were made some waffles for breakfast!

We went to see one of the kids’ gymnastics performance nearby. This was great to see all of the kids having fun.

Unfortunately we had to leave before it was done and drive to Oslo! We had never been so we wanted to see what it was like so we drove there to stay for our final night in Norway. We stopped in Kongsberg for snack and coffee, of course!

We got rid of the car, which wasn’t super easy to find and it was actually in a parking structure but maps took us to a different location! Once we did that we got ourselves checked in to our hotel which was right on one of the main streets.
We had a shower and freshened up before walking for some dinner.

We walked fairly far to get a burger for dinner but it was great as we got to see a lot of the city.

Once dinner was done, we continued our long walk around Oslo and all of the different areas! We also went to the cool looking opera house that they have in Oslo.

For the evening we had a nice relaxing time with snacks in bed and watched some TV.

Day 2

We had free breakfast at the hotel but it was a nightmare! Far too busy for such a small spot.

We walked to the King’s castle and we walked around the park that is attached to the castle. It was such a peaceful place to walk around and the architecture, as is Europe, was beautiful.

We went to ‘Frognerparken’ which is the famous park with a lot of nude sculptures in it, which is one part of it but also it’s a nice park and the sculptures look cool!


We walked to find ourselves a coffee and then walked to Askerhus festing, which is an old castle/military fort.


We walked quite far from here to ‘Gamle Oslo’ which is the old part of town which also has a very new part just around it. We wanted to check this out and we loved it.


We went back to the hotel to get ourselves sorted and then headed to catch the train to the airport.

We flew back to the UK to spend a couple more days there.

Kim’s dad, Tom, picked us up from the airport and we had a McDonald’s for dinner on the way home, of course! It was time to sleep once we got back.

Advertisement
Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 575: Vancouver, BC – A Broken Battery

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got some admin and tickets done in the first part of the morning and then at 10:00 he walked down to the office to meet someone and replace their laptop battery.

The person arrived shortly after Curtis did so he got the battery swapped out and tested it and all seemed to be working as expected, which was excellent.

Curtis then walked back home and had some tickets to do as well as a meeting with his team and some others from the company to discuss some processes and how they can be improved.

After that was done, it was time to action on some of the points they made in the meeting and also do some tickets.

We then had lunch together and after lunch it was fairly quiet for Curtis but he did do some tickets, admin and helped a colleague figure out something strange.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a meeting in the morning to discuss the org chart and hiring for the next few months. She then popped out to pick up a cocktail kit for someone. Kim had planned to drop it off too, but it took so long for her to get to the car that she didn’t have time.

Once Kim was home she joined a meeting straight away and discussed recruitment with all the hiring managers. she then hosted a dance party where everyone danced to Bye Bye Bye, then Stop by Spice girls and Kim showed her colleagues the Fast Food Song they were confused!!

For the beginning of the afternoon Kim was able to get some admin done and then she joined a few meetings. The first was a team meeting, the second was a follow on from the marketing meeting yesterday and then the third was an end of week catch up with her teammate.

To finish the day Kim delivered a cocktail and then spent some time writing up job descriptions.

Evening

Kim worked fairly late and we didn’t plan anything for dinner, so we had pizza.

Once we ate, we watched some more of Drive To Survive in anticipation for the new season tomorrow!

We watched that and some other things and then we headed to bed. There was some construction going on outside our apartment this morning which woke us, so we were tired.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 568: Vancouver, BC – Trip To Staples

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis started the day with some tickets and responding to some messages from people. He also got some admin done.

At 11:00, he had a meeting with a few people, some from his team, some not, to discuss some project requirements. It was a fairly quick meeting, but a good one.

Curtis had some work to do from that meeting as well as some other tickets.

Post lunch, it was mostly tickets again and a surprise offboard he had to deal with a bit of.

Kim’s Day

In the morning Kim had a team meeting to go over the projects and ask a few questions. It’s one of the first time in weeks that it has finished on time! She then worked on some admin before heading out to Staples to pick some up. Kim then took a few items to a colleague before heading home. For the rest of the morning Kim managed to get a few smaller tasks done.

In the early afternoon Kim hosted a dance off where a few people followed along to a tutorial for Everybody by Backstreet Boys and then did the dance to the actual song. It was a lot of fun!

For the rest of the afternoon Kim had various team meetings talking about projects and then potential purchases and then another call in regards to logistics for the party.

Evening

Curtis watched hockey after work and then once that was done, we had some pizza and watched some TV, including the final episode of It’s A Sin which was a very good show!

We watched a bit more TV and some YouTube videos and relaxed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 421: Vancouver, BC – The Newest Bed & A Great Interview!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis’ day wasn’t really an interesting read, but he did a lot of project work in the morning, figuring out how to do something with some help from colleagues.

As well as this, Curtis did some tickets in the afternoon and had some discussions with his team.

Kim’s Day

Kim woke up nice and early for her interview this morning. The interview went really well! For this one it was Kim asking questions about the company and learning more, which was great because she has so many questions and interests in the company and products. She wasn’t short on questions and really enjoyed the interview. At the end she was asked to provide some times for a second interview with them so Kim now has that booked in for Tuesday! Thats something exciting to look forward to!

After her breakfast Kim broke down the bed to take to the people buying it. So she filled up the elevator, swapped the beds over and took the new bed upstairs, put the old bed in the car and dropped it off.

Before Kim started building the bed she had a good vacuum of the floor and gave it a quick wash too! Then she spent the whole afternoon putting the bed together. It was so much fun and it did Kim the world of good to have a time consuming task for the day, keeps her happy and busy.

Evening

The pole classes tonight were fun, Kim even managed to do a shoulder mount invert for the first time in a while. She will continue to work on that as she was just starting to gain confidence with it pre COVID. In the second class they revisited a cool flip dismount, which was fun and then two nice poses! They were both great classes.

After the class Kim had a catch-up with her friend and it was so nice!

We chilled when Kim got back home and watched a bit of TV.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 398: Vancouver, BC – No More Job For You

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a whole day of doing onboards and laptop setups.

Curtis created some accounts in the morning and then he walked down to the office.

Once he got to the office, he got 2 laptops, 2 monitors, 2 keyboards, 2 mice and 2 headsets to get ready for the new hires.

He spent a long time getting the laptops setup and packaged up and ready to ship out.

He then had to wait for a courier to arrive, which took a couple of hours, but he did some other work whilst he waited.

Eventually, the courier arrived and then he was able to head home and finish up working there, as well as chat with Kim about her fun day, as you’ll see below.

Kim’s Day (In 1st Person Today…Exciting!)

As you can imagine from the title and from reading Curtis’s blog, today was not a good day for me! I had an idea that I would lose my job today…And I did. I was laid off and not fired, so there is no need to panic.

I got into the office and finished packing up my desk after saying a quick hello to my manager. After this I made sure all the little tasks from last week and yesterday were done, re-saved a receipt for my credit card and sent out a laptop to someone. I then worked on writing up a handover list for my colleague, outlining a few things that I was expecting to be delivered, an update on a few contacts and links to logs, documents and other things I had been working on. I finished that all just before my 10am meeting.

I walked into the meeting room and said ‘its okay, I know whats going on, I understand and its okay’. I felt very George walking Lenny to look at the bunnies, but I was both George and Lenny, it was very strange. I was certain of what was going to happen, but still a little hopeful that it wouldn’t. Once I sat down it was confirmed that I was let go. They went over a few things together and then Kims manager handed over to a teammate who was going to explain everything in a bit more detail. Just before she did I sent the handover email to my colleague and sent Curtis a quick message to let him know what had happened.

My teammate then went over everything in a little more detail. I then collected my things and headed home.

Once I was home I facetimed my parents which was just what I needed. I was able to laugh and cry about it all and rationalise a plan for the next few days and weeks. After this I called my sister and did much of the same. We had a great chat and it was lovely to see her face.

I quickly updated my LinkedIn and then tried to go over my CV, but that didn’t last long. Instead I started tidying up the apartment, doing laundry, finishing unpacking from the trip and bagging up my IT equipment to take back to the office at some point, but not today! That took me ages because every now and again I would get a message from someone within the company and I would respond and have a little cry! I have received a fair few messages, that is a LOT of crying time.

While I had come to terms with the idea of losing my job over the past day it was still so upsetting to have it happen. I loved that job, I would brag to anyone who would listen about how amazing the people are and how interesting, diverse and fun my role specifically was. It is clear that I was in the right job for me, the love and support I have received has been incredible! And I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone I worked with and who made the last 16 months so incredible! Finding a new job will be a challenge and I can only hope that I get to work with people half as incredible as you all!

Thank you for all the opportunities, challenges and memories, it was a wonderful experience!

As I have said many times times today – it’s okay, I’m okay and it’ll be okay!

I know I’m not the only person to experience this, especially during the current pandemic, but I wanted to express my feelings on this platform.

Tomorrow I will start my job hunt. I have already been given a few companies to check out and a few specific roles to look into, so I am off to a great start. Let’s see where this new adventure and opportunity will take me!

Evening

Once we had a bit of a chat about Kim’s unfortunate news, we hopped in the car and drove it to the garage for its appointment tomorrow.

We then walked back home which was a nice thing to do after such a stressful day.

After our 33 minute walk, the elevators were taking forever in our building and you cannot take the stairs, so there was a lot of waiting there.

We got hungry, so we ordered McDonald’s as Kim had a hard day and we couldn’t really be bothered to cook.

When the food arrived, Curtis went downstairs to get it and there was a large queue again for the elevators.

Curtis had to wait a long time as just one elevator was working, but he got upstairs eventually.

We ate our food and watched TV for the remainder of the evening.

What a day, huh?

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 379: Auckland – Biometrics & Back in The Hostel Life

Kim & Curtis Hale

Waking at 05:45, we all hopped in the car with Kim’s family’s bags and drove to the airport. There was no traffic, but we did need to stop for some fuel on the way.

We got to the airport and it was pretty busy! We walked all the way to the correct check in location and left Tom & Maggie there. It was pretty emotional for Kim!

We deove back and we were very tired. We had a late checkout from the hotel, so we didn’t have to leave until 12:00.

We slept when we got back until around 09:45. Curtis then had a coffee and we got packed and did a bit of admin.

We eventually checked out at 12:00 and moved all of our baggage to the car. We walked to a coffee shop in the centre of town, got a ham and cheese croissant each and a coffee for breakfast.

We left the coffee shop and Kim did a bit of shopping around the city centre. Once Kim had finished, we walked up to the Visa Application Centre for Curtis to get his biometrics for his visa completed. We turned up 15 minutes early but were seen anyway and had it completed just after the original planned time, which was a result.

Once we finished there, we went to get Curtis’ hair cut. We went to his usual place and were told it would be 20 minutes. We waited for 45 and were then told it’s another 30 minutes and the were 2 people ahead. We didn’t want to wait any longer so we left and went back to the hotel.

We picked up the car and drove to our next accommodation.

We are officially back in hostel life! At least for the moment. We got to the place and no-one was there to check us in. We called and they said we cannot check in until 16:00. We spoke with them and asked which room we are in and we were allowed in. We went to the room and it was disgusting with bugs everywhere and also a lot of mould, so we asked to move to another room we had seen which looks nicer.

Once we were in the new room, we waited to get our key at 16:00 and then had fun with them regarding payment…we went to the shop to get some drinks as we were very thirsty!

Once we got back, we moved all of our bags in and Curtis started to feel a bit unwell so we relaxed for a bit until he felt better.

We went out for a late dinner at a cheap Italian place which was OK but nothing special.

What was special was the sky after our dinner during our walk around!

We got back and did more admin as well as catch up on some TV.

It’s weird, and certainly not as nice, to be in a hostel again, even if it is a private room (shared bathroom)!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale