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!
We woke up around 08:30 and we got ready to go out for breakfast.
We both walked up to the Beacon Drive in, a staple for us when we come here, and got ourselves some nice breakfast and relaxed there for a bit.
Linda came and joined us and we chatted whilst Kim ate an ice cream and then we left for a walk.
A Nice Walk
We planned to go into the petting zoo that was in the nearby park, but unfortunately it was closed! We were able to see some goats and other animals through the fence though, which was really nice.
We did a bit more of a walk around the area and Linda pointed out a few new places and points of interest nearby that we’d not seen before.
A Friend
We headed back to Linda’s place and then after a while, we both walked down to meet a friend of Kim’s for a coffee and we got to meet her child who is now nearly 1!
After a great long conversation, we walked back to Linda’s and got ready for dinner.
Delicious Italian Food
We met a couple of Linda’s friends at an Italian restaurant across the street which we had been to once before. It was AMAZING food! Kim had mushroom pasta and Curtis had lasagne. Both were phenomenal.
We got profiteroles to share for dessert and then we were truly stuffed!
Fisherman’s Wharf
We managed a nice evening walk to Fisherman’s Wharf just down the street, though it was pretty cold, so we came back to Linda’s and relaxed before heading to bed.
We woke up pretty early and got ourselves ready to head out to Tofino!
Tofino is a very popular destination for tourists, so we were glad to finally be able to go.
We drove out there, on an estimated 2.5 hour drive. There were some road works and construction happening on the route, so we had to stop a few times, one of which was for 30 minutes, but we eventually made it to Tofino in around 3 hours.
We parked up and went right on the hunt for coffee. We found a place and walked there and had some pretty good coffee from Tofino Coffee RoastingCo.
We had the coffee and then walked around Tofino, just to see what it’s all about.
The actual town wasn’t all that interesting, but there was a little boat dock area which had some really fresh air and some really cool looking buildings.
After we went here, we actually ended up bumping into people that Kim knew from work and they gave a couple of really great suggestions!
The first suggestion was to go to chesterman beach which was a slightly less populated beach but really, really nice.
We stopped at the Tofino brewing company on the way and got there right as they opened! We had a beer and just relaxed outside for a bit which was really nice and the beer was good too! It was then time to get going again.
We drove down to the beach and got parked up and then had a nice, long, walk along the beach. There weren’t many people there and the sand was SO SOFT!
We decided to see how cold the water was, which was VERY COLD though kinda nice on our heavily trodden feet.
We left this beach and drove back up to Tofino and parked back up, being smart and using our ticket we still had time on!
The second thing that Kim’s friend suggested was to get a key lime pie slice from a restaurant nearby, so we got that and it was very, very delicious!
We left here after walking to a hotel that Kim remembered staying at as a child and then we drove out to Ucluelet. This super small town doesn’t have much, but it did have a lighthouse!
The lighthouse had a very large whistle buoy near it which warns boats where to go, so that was VERY loud.
We then decided that it was home time! We were pretty tired but had an incredible day and such a nice break!
We didn’t have too much trouble driving back to the hotel, which by the way, is basically a pub with rooms on, which isn’t as bad as it seemed.
We got back to the hotel and Kim ready that it was possible to see bears nearby, so we went to look for them but saw none, so headed to the local brewery!
Curtis got a beer and Kim got a cider and then we realised we were hungry and no other food place was open, so we had some pizza and a pretzel from the brewery.
We got a half and half pizza. One side was a veggie pizza and the other was lemon and herb chicken with tomatoes and tatziki.
We ate our food and had another drink and then eventually headed back to the hotel, which was just across the road.
We got back around 22:00 and chilled out until sleeping, which we are excited to do!
Likely another early morning tomorrow, and a long day, but it should be a fun one!
We woke up and got ourselves some croissants and got showered after that.
We did a bit of tidying/cleaning and then Kim needed to head out.
Kim went to meet a friend who was getting a tattoo! Once she got the tattoo, Kim met with her and had a coffee and then walked her home. She had a good couple of hours of chatting with her and that was super nice. A beautiful tattoo, too!
Curtis vacuumed and then played some games and relaxed until Kim got back.
Once Kim got back, she did some more cleaning and had to take a video of the apartment for something and send that off.
Curtis booked tickets for the Leafs game here in Vancouver, depending on if everything is going ok in December! Exciting!
We had leftover Korean chicken for dinner and watched some TV together for the evening.
Curtis walked down to the office in the morning and got right into more office setup.
He and his colleague got all desks setup with montor arms (other than the ones that couldn’t be done as there were none left). Also, about 95% of desks now have monitors, other than the few that don’t due to running out of them.
Curtis spent most of the day doing this, as well as figuring out a few things he needed to figure out with his colleague about how desks will be setup. They got some permanent desks setup for people coming to the office full time, and then he sorted out some cables again and figured out which to keep and which to throw away.
Curtis walked back home in time to walk to get the car with Kim.
Kim’s Day
Kim had a really nice day today. It started with a 1-1 with a new employee and then a really interesting and useful chat with her manager and someone from the recruitment firm they work with. They caught each other up on work and bounced ideas off each other, it was great!
She then joined the weekly department check in and then finished a laptop at the same time. Then it was time for the regular weekly recruitment meeting. Kim also stole some time towards the end to discuss another role once everyone else has left.
In the afternoon Kim had a 1-1 with a manager to discuss a few of their new starters and how they are doing. Then she tried sorting out some charges from Apple, but had no luck!
She finished her day with a call with a teammate to see how they are doing.
Once she got back Kim managed to get a few quick wins done by sending emails and sending out an updated party invite. She then dropped some letters off to her colleague and stayed to play with the kittens.
Evening
We walked down to the garage to get the car, getting a coffee on the way, and once we picked that up we headed to the store to get something for dinner.
We got home and Kim did a little bit of work before going out to see a friend for a little bit.
We went to the gym at 21:00 for an hour which felt really good, and then when we got back up to the apartment, we had chicken ceasar salad for dinner and then we hung out and watched a bit of TV.
Kim went out at 23:00 to see her friend and drove out to a beach to look at the meteor shower that was happening today! She even managed to see a couple!
Kim headed home around 1:15am and then we went right to bed, after a little McDonald’s!
Curtis went to get croissants for breakfast and once we ate those and Kim showered, Kim went out to meet a friend and hang out in a park for a while.
Kittens!
Kim went to see the kittens that her friend had for a little bit and they were so cute!
Once Kim was done, she walked back home and then we both went out together.
New Shoes, Warmth & Ice Cream!
We went to get ice cream, specifically, at a place Kim went to around a year ago and remembered it was amazing, so we had to try it.
It was 28°C today, so super warm but beautiful! We got a drink when we got there and a light snack and we ate that whilst sat in a park nearby.
We then had a walk around the park and headed to a shop to get Kim some sandals as her feet were far too warm.
Once we got those, we went to the ice cream store, which had a bit of a queue, and waited patiently for our turn.
Curtis got a coffee flavoured ice cream and Kim got salted caramel. The ice cream was super delicious and we took it to the park and sat on the grass again, in the shade, just relaxing.
We eventually got up and had a bit more of a walk before heading back to the car around 17:50.
Fans, Supermarket & Leftovers
We drove back towards home and stopped at the supermarket but also popped into another store to get a couple of fans (it’s getting warm!) And some screws so we can hang the photo we bought a while ago!
We got back home and had leftovers form yesterday’s delicious Chinese food and then Kim had a shower and got herself ready for work tomorrow. It was too hot to have a bath this week.
Curtis is off work tomorrow, he had been given the day off to recognise National Indigenous Day in Canada, which is a great thing that the company is doing.
Curtis went to the office in the morning and had to setup 2 laptops, as well as find equipment to send out to the new hires.
The office is running low on equipment before they get an order, so finding some items was a bit of a challenge.
Curtis finished that up at about 12:00 and then did some tickets whilst he waited for someone to arrive to collect a monitor.
Once that person was gone, Curtis had a meeting with a colleague to discuss a process and then once he was done with that meeting, he walked home and had some lunch.
After lunch, he had to generate some reports for someone and had some tickets to deal with which took him nicely to the end of the day.
Kim’s Day
Kim had a day full of back to back meetings and interviews! In the morning Kim had her team meeting to go over the plan for the week. She went from this into an interview, then straight into the weekly meeting and then into a second interview. She then had a meeting with the hiring managers to discuss the interviews. It was a really productive and interesting morning!
To start the afternoon Kim had a meeting about planning and next steps for a project. It was so interesting and it turns out Kim was approaching it all the wrong way, she learnt so much!
For a good chunk of the afternoon Kim worked with her teammate on setting up interviews and sending out paperwork. She then had a chat with another teammate before heading out to the new apartment to continue building the sofa. She also had a great chat with a friend while she did the final bits to the sofa.
Sofa Is Built & Registered For Vaccine!
Before work this morning, we registered for our notification to get a vaccine! We don’t get a vaccine for a while, but a new registration site went live so you can get instructions and a code for when you can get a vaccine.
This makes it feel just that little bit closer!
After work, Kim went over to the apartment to complete the sofa as the items we were missing arrived in the mail and we now have a constructed sofa, which is great.
Kim chatted with a friend after that and then headed back to our current apartment so we could have some dinner.
We ate delicious lemon chicken!
We got notice that there will be a viewing tomorrow, which is the first one with the new owners. We’ve been enjoying not having any, and our final week is the worst possible time, but what can we do. That’ll be happening tomorrow evening but maybe we get out for an evening walk.
We had a really great sleep and slowly woke up and had some breakfast.
We had breakfast wraps and then got ourselves ready for a walk.
We went for a nice walk and spoke about really exciting things happening at Kim’s work as well as the product in general.
We got back home after our walk and got a bunch of cleaning done, as well as laundry, which felt great.
Once we did that, it was time for Curtis to watch hockey and Kim to chat with a friend.
Kim’s chat went on for over 3 hours but it was so good! They got to cover a wide range of topics and just really enjoyed laughing together.
Once hockey was done and Kim’s chat was done, we ordered some food as we didn’t order any for dinner yesterday. We ordered some Asian Fusion food from a place called The Union which we ordered from a while ago and enjoyed.
After dinner, we played games and watch TV, and also planned out items we are going to start boxing up for the move in a few weeks.
Curtis had some tickets to get done in the morning, some of which required discussion with his team, too.
In the late morning/early afternoon, Curtis had a quick call with some colleagues to figure out some email working for an automated process Curtis created.
Once that was done, he had to do a little bit of work on the automated process and eventually got that completed, meaning the project was done!
Curtis then had some lunch before jumping into a trivia with some people from the Vancouver office, which he did incredibly poor in.
Curtis tidied up some things and did some more tickets and then it was Leafs hockey time!
Kim’s Day
In the morning Kim had three back to back meetings. The first was the daily check in to meet with the team before everyone got into the day, the second was the high level weekly chat and the third was a plan the next few weeks.
To stretch a little after these meetings Kim went out and picked up some coffee. It was nice to get up and out of the apartment for a walk. She then did a little admin when she got back before she joined her first midday meeting.
The first meeting was only quick and to go over the structure of some upcoming interviews, the second was the weekly HR meeting and then Kim hosted the social call.
In the afternoon Kim took a couple of calls from people who needed help with a few things and also worked on a few documents. Then the team Kim is in had a chat with the CEO to go over a few things, it was a great chat. To finish the day Kim and her colleague helped a department head with a job posting.
Evening
Whilst Curtis watched hockey, Kim finished up work and then had a chat with a friend. She’s not spoken with her for a while so it was really great to chat with her.
Kim then had another chat with another friend, because she’s clearly very popular today!
We then made some dinner, which was a katsu curry. We already had sauce in the freezer so we just made that which was easy.
We just chilled for the rest of the evening, once we ate.
Mr & Mrs Hale 