Victoria,BC

Place 70 – Day 30: Victoria, BC – Dinner at The Empress

Breakfast

We went for breakfast at Vista 18, which we went to the previous time we were here with Linda.

The food was great as it was before. Curtis had a standard breakfast with ham, eggs and home fries, as well as some cranberry sourdough which was the best part of the breakfast!

Linda had an omelette and Kim had a waffle with chocolate and banana.

Jumanji

We finished up with breakfast and then walked down to the cinema to watch Jumanji! We wanted a simple, easy to watch film, so that was what we chose.

We had a lot of space each, too, with recliner seating.Overall, the film was funny, but not as good as the first one.

Jumanji: The Next Level

Our Rating:- 7/10

Flowers

We went to Winners for a bit for Kim to get some tops and then we went back home.

Kim went to get ‘something’ and when she came back, it was the flowers we had bought for Linda from her favourite florist!

Linda really likes these, which we are glad about.

Curtis watched hockey for a bit before we left to go to dinner.

Dinner at The Empress

We went for dinner at The Q at The Empress. The Empress is an old beautiful (expensive!) hotel here in Victoria and we had always said we should go for food sometime.

Linda had been here for food recently and said it was very good, so we absolutely agreed when she mentioned going there!

The staff were incredibly kind and hospitable, which is the first thing we noticed.We got a drink each and then perused the menu.

Kim decided on a rack of lamb whilst Curtis went for white wine braised rabbit. Linda chose the beef tenderloin.

The rabbit (above)

Kim’s rack of lamb

Our meals were all terrific. Huge flavour, richness but perfectly balanced.We had dessert, too!

Curtis and Linda had the hazelnut and chocolate tart whilst Kim had a vanilla mille-feuille.

The meal overall was a 10/10, service included!

We had another terrific day, and we ended it with some more baileys…because it Christmas!


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 113: Vancouver, BC – Fundraiser Four Course Feast

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work a little earlier than normal and had a lot of emails/messages/admin to do.

Eventually, Curtis was able to continue with setting up laptops for the conference, which he was able to get done by lunch time.

After lunch, Curtis gave someone their new mac and then had a team meeting with some important company structure information and questions.

After that, Curtis setup a laptop for someone as a replacement and they spilled a drink on their current laptop and it has damaged a key!

Curtis then spent the rest of the afternoon wiping a mac and setting it up as a spare.

Curtis went to meet Kim and walk her to her exercise class.

Kim’s Day

Kim didn’t stay in the office for long this morning, it must have only been 10 minutes before she was back out the door to pick up more nail varnish remover to clean the whiteboards with.

When she got back Kim had a 30 minute catch up about the new hire meet and eat that will be happening in a couple of weeks. While the meeting was on the fruit arrived, so Kim put away all the fruit before cleaning the boardrooms whiteboard.

After the cleaning Kim took a new hire, who is visiting from the Ontario office, on a quick office tour. Then she put away the coffee delivery that arrived.

Just before lunch Kim spent some time chasing for a group hotel reservation that she needed to arrange.

After lunch Kim started collecng the items that she needs for the branded gift boxes that she will be sending out tomorrow. Once she collected the items Kim went and picked up some things to put them in and decorate it with. When she got back she arranged them all and set them aside to be sent out the next day.

The final thing that needed to be done was to introduce the new starters in a staff all email. Kim added all the needed information to the premade PowerPoint and then sent it out just before she left for the day.

On the way to her hoop class Kim met up with Curtis and he walked her to class.

The class went well, Kim is struggling with nit being able to do moves with as much ease as she could before she left the UK, but she will get there.

After the class Kim went home to say goodbye to Curtis before popping to the shop to get some stuff for dinner. For dinner Kim made nando’s chicken wraps with mozzarella sticks, tomatoes and sweet potato wedges. She ate this whule watching Queer Eye.

Curtis’ Evening

Curtis had no plans for the evening until 16:30 when someone said they had spare tickets to a fundraiser in which a chef cooks a 4 course meal!

Curtis gladly accepted and headed down there for 20:00.

Once Curtis got there, and everyone else did, everyone sat down and waited for further information.

This evening was the 53rd on the Greasy Spoon evening in which a fine dining chef enters the Save On Meats diner and serves what is their idea of fine dining-diner food.

This time it was Roger Ma from the Boulevard restaurant here in Vancouver.

The first dish was a ‘chilled’ borscht which tasted like a nice creamy tomato soup. It was really great.

The second course was sauté beef with noodles and a broth, which was terrific.

The 3rd item was boiled pork which was in a heavy batter with cheese on and, whilst delicious, it was very heavy!

The dessert was a red bean and tapioca tart which was amazing and this was paired with sake.

Each meal was paired with a drink. The first with a white wine, the second with an IPA and then third with a red wine, along with the finale which was with sake.

The food was incredible. During the breaks, there was a speaker speaking about his experiences being homeless and how he has overcome this, as well as a local singer, singing.

This whole even is to raise awareness and money for homelessness as this place serves people in need of food each and every day and has done so for over 2 million people in Vancouver!

Curtis left and walked home to see his incredible wife who was hard at work making lunch, because she is amazing!

Curtis and Kim relaxed briefly and watched some videos and then went to bed.


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale