Tag: Google

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 525: Vancouver, BC – Kim’s New Phone!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a team call in the morning, followed by some ticket work and then 2 calls back to back.

The first was a 1 on 1 with his manager, but he also used this to ask a few other questions as well.

After that, he had a follow up to the project meeting from yesterday and he managed to make a few changes to the document that was created.

After that, Curtis did some ticket work and then ate some lunch.

Once lunch was finished, Curtis had some project work to do, but before that, he went and picked up a package for Kim, which was her new phone! Exciting!

After he got back, he started on some project work and it turned out that what he wanted to do probably won’t work, though he needs to do some more testing.

When he stopped doing that, he had to create a lot of things for a request, which took the remainder of the day.

Kim’s Day

As Kim was getting ready for the day she received a message from her colleague to say they were dropping off the laptop, so she quickly went downstairs to take the laptop. Kim was also surprised with a coffee from her colleague, so that was really kind!

A little into the morning Kim joined a call with a potential new vendor which went well. Shortly after that call Kim had a chat with her doctors to discuss the shortness of breath and strange breathing that she has been experiencing. It was decided that Kim would go in for an in person check up tomorrow and maybe even have a folllow up COVID test. However, it’s likely that Kim doesn’t have COVID, but there is still a small chance that she could have received a false positive. There is also a chance that Kim could be experiencing the strange breathing due to anxiety. She feels totally fine in the day to day but it’s so important to check and make sure things are okay, be it COVID or mental health!

Shortly after the doctors call Kim had a team meeting. She gave an update on the strange breathing and it was a really nice conversation full of support. Kim really does enjoy working where she does, she is extremely lucky. They also had a chat about recruitment and some projects that are going on.

Kim and her colleague left that call to join the social call. It was so much fun!! Everyone just chatted and caught up. They also made plans to maybe play a few games online over the weekend, so that will be really nice!

In the afternoon Kim had a long call with her colleague so they could make plans for the upcoming projects and organise some of the team for the next few months. It was a great meeting and so much good stuff came from it.

To finish the day Kim set up a laptop and added a lot of information to a spreadsheet.

Evening

Once Kim was finished with work, we had some chili, as that’s all we had in the freezer, so we ate that!

We watched some TV and played some games, but mostly we setup Kim’s new phone and played around with that.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 523: Vancouver, BC – Negative!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a busy morning, with many people messaging him and asking for help.

Curtis had his usually weekly team meeting at 10:30 and after that he had some more tickets to attend to.

After lunch, Curtis had a call with someone to show them how to do something and then there were 35+ new tickets that arrived at once which Curtis dealt with these were user role change tickets, so it was just a bit of admin for the last 45 minutes of the day!

Kim’s Day

Just after her day started Kim had a call with her colleague to go over the projects that they both have going on. It was a really useful meeting where Kim was able to talk out a document she was writing and get a second viewing on it meant she was able to figure out the wording that she needed to make it better. She focused on the document after the call too.

At midday Kim joined a team meeting chat where they had a quick 15 minute catch up to go over some of the other ongoing projects over the next few weeks.

Shortly after the meeting Kim received a test to say that the test results came back negative, which was such a relief!

In the afternoon Kim worked on an info email to send out to everyone. Then she finished the day on a call working with her colleague on a few things. The call was mainly to collect the paperwork needed for the facilities project, but they also went over a few other things too.

Evening

Kim was meant to receive a package today but it had not arrived and the tracking was fairly useless, so she contacted support and that also wasn’t too much help!

During this, Kim made dumplings to go with our leftover stew and we then ate that whilst watching TV.

We had to reschedule the viewings planned for tonight and tomorrow as the testing centre for COVID suggested that Kim isolate still, if she has symptoms, even if she tests negative.

Therefore, it was just relax time!

On the plus side, Curtis got his final piece of paperwork he needs for PR and Kim just needs a couple!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 338: Vancouver, BC – Pixel Buds

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis’ start to the morning was filled with admin and a lot of people messaging him questions and asking for help, so that took up his time until his 10:30 weekly team meeting.

The team meeting took an hour and then Curtis had new tickets to get sorted, as there were a lot that arrived during the meeting.

This took Curtis nicely to lunch time.

After lunch, Curtis was able to fix an issue for someone and then did some other work and admin which took him nicely to the end of the day.

During the day, Curtis received his Pixel Buds, his new wireless earbuds, which he is enjoying!

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by handing out some post and then she joined a couple of colleagues in getting a coffee.

When they got back to the office Kim drafted and sent out some emails before making notes for an upcoming meeting. She also called a postal service to see if there have been problems delivering the post lately, but it doesn’t seem like there is.

Kim was due to have an hour long meeting with her colleague to go over some events happening over the next few months, but instead it lasted the rest of the day! Kim made a quick report just before the meeting and then they got stuck in. They spoke about vendors and each of their options, called a vendor, organised the budged, sorted the timeline of planning, arranged the day of events and made a game plan for the next few days.

After the meeting Kim drew up a schedule for the day of and made a guide for what each event is and how it will work. Kim also reached out to the vendors she had been talking to for further information. She then wrote up a to do list for tomorrow before heading home.

Teriyaki Chicken

Kim got home and marinaded some chicken in teriyaki and then we tried on some clothes that we got delivered.

We then took out the recycling and Kim finished off the dinner.

We watched some TV, played some mini golf and relaxed for the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 333: Vancouver, BC – Email Issues!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a busy start to the day as there were some issues with Microsoft Outlook.

Curtis had to find out what was happening from the users and eventually from Microsoft.

Curtis dealt with this and then had a team meeting.

Once that meeting was done, he was looking at Google accounts throughout the company and removing any that could be removed as well as organising the grouping and ensuring that everything was correct there.

He did this throughout most of the day.

Curtis had a project meeting in the afternoon which was very positive.

Kim’s Day

Kim worked from home for some of the morning and started the day by hosting the mid week catch up before joining this months health and safety committee meeting. Both meetings went really well!

Once Kim was in the office she started working on communications that will go out over rhe coming weeks. She would take breaks when she couldn’t figure out what else was needed by tearing apart the few remaining notebooks to recycle and shred. Kim also had a quick call with a colleague to discuss one of the communications, just to get a second opinion.

In the mid afternoon Kim and two friends went out to get a vietnamese coffee! It was so lovely to get out in the sun and have a delicious coffee!

When she got back Kim took some time out from communications to update the maps on the Wiki. Then she went back to continue writing.

Kim finished the day by having a great big catch up with a friend that went well into the evening. It was so lovely to sit down and just chat!

Yet Another Walk

Kim got home fairly late and we had the same dinner as yesterday.

We watched a little TV and then went out for a nice evening walk again, and chatted about each of our days.

We got back home and played some virtual mini golf and then Kim watched some of the office and Curtis played some games.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 216: Vancouver, BC – Live Online Workout Class!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a few tickets to do throughout the day, which kept him busy.

As well as that, he was making a Visio flowchart for a process he has developed and that took a surprising amount of time to make!

Curtis had a meeting at 13:00, which lasted for 1 hour.

This was a company meeting to discuss what will be happening and what the plan is during COVID-19.

After that, Curtis and another meeting which was a project-related meeting to figure out requirements and what each team could do to help.

Curtis did some project admin after this and then at the end of the day, he had a happy hour call with people from his office with drinks, similar to what he would have done if he was there.

Kim’s Day

Kim had the final class of her project management course today, but this had to be done remotely which was a little different.

When Kim was on breaks from the course, she did some social related things for work.

After finishing her class, Kim jumped into her social chat with colleagues for a drink and chat.

Costco, Online Workout & Curry!

Once we were both done with work, we walked across the bridge, just for a walk really, and popped into Costco.

They didn’t have most of the things people were looking for, so it was incredibly quiet!

We gathered a few things we needed and then walked back home.

Kim did a workout when she got home as she was invited to it by a friend!

It was a course run on Instagram live as no-one can go out, so they were doing it online.

Kim liked this a lot, but she was tired!

After, we made a chicken tikka masala (mostly from scratch, but not the sauce, we’re not good enough for that!).

This curry was great, as expected, and we had some samosas and naans with it too.

We chilled for the evening…it’s crazy that it’s the weekend already!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 109: Vancouver, BC – Project Full

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis wasn’t able to have meetings today as there is a new company policy for ‘Thoughtful Thursdays’.

This means that Curtis had more time to get some other admin and project tasks done!

Curtis got some admin done in the early morning and then setup 2 laptops back to back. This is to upgrade people as part of a project.

Curtis was able to continue with some project work in the afternoon, but this time it was mostly research. He did a few tickets along the way but it was good to get some other things done, though his calendar for tomorrow is full!

Kim’s Day

When Kim got in she spent the morning on random little tasks. Then mid morning she went on to make a fruit salad to use up the other half of the melon and restock parts of the fridge.

Just before midday the weekly pizza arrived for the meeting. Today Kim decided to try using proper plates rather than the usual paper plates, it saves in cost and reduces the amount of single use items used around the office.

Just after this Kim was invited out to head to Sephora with 2 girls who were going and as she fancied a little walk in the sun Kim tagged along. When they got back the meeting had finished so Kim and one of the other girls sat down for some pizza for lunch and had a good chat.

Kim spent the first half of her afternoon changing parts of the floor plan maps to make them work and fit better. They looked so much better after the changes.

Kim then spent some time organising and placing orders. She had to call up Nespresso to get her order to go through and she had to call staples because she charged the order to the wrong card. Unfortunately she was unable to get through so that will now be a job for tomorrow.

Terrific Spaghetti Bolognese

We didn’t really do anything in the evening.

We got back and relaxed and then when we eventually started to get hungry, Curtis made a spaghetti bolognese.

We had some sauce leftover from another meal and Curtis used that as well as a blend of other items to create possibly one of the best spaghetti bolognese’s we’ve had!

It was meaty yet saucy and all around great.

We finished our evening as our usual with some TV and duolingo and then went to bed. Friday tomorrow, but we’re sure it’ll be busy!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Mountain View,CA

Place 75 – Day 1: Mountain View,CA 🇺🇸 – Computer History Museum & GooglePlex

Kim & Curtis Hale

Computer History Museum

We were going to take public transport down to Mountain View this morning, but that would take 2.5 hours, so we changed our mind and decided to take an Uber, which took about 1 hour.

We got to the Computer History Museum, expecting to spend an hour or so here, but we were wrong!

This museum was very large, with about 20 sections in it. This was actually a really interesting museum, if not a bit technical.

This museum was about the first 2000 years of computers and technology.

Lunch

We got very hungry after our few hours in the museum, so we went on the hunt for food.

We found a 7-Eleven and thought it would be cheap to get something from there.

Curtis got a sandwich and Kim got a wrap and we bought a drink each and some crisps and chocolate.

We sat and ate our food and then walked onward.

GooglePlex

We walked down the road before we hit a few Google buildings.

We didn’t book a tour with a tour group as it was over $500 each for it!

We did however walk around the Google campus, as you’re able to do there, seeing the Google bikes, Google employees everywhere and all the Google buildings!

There are over 60 buildings owned by Google in just this area.

Android Garden & Store

We walked a bit further down the road to the Android Garden and Merchandise Store.

The android garden is a staple thing you’re meant to go and take a photo of when you’re there, so we did just that.

We looked around the store and just had to buy something, so Curtis bought a Google t-shirt!

Uber Home

We left here and took an uber home. It wasn’t too far from rush hour, but it took about 1 hour to get back.

Once we got back, Curtis watched the remaining 2 periods of the Leafs game and then we headed out for dinner.

Dinner

We took a bus for 20 minutes down to a shopping mall we didn’t know existed where there was a lot of food options including a food court!

We got a bite to eat here at Panda Express, which is a fast food chinese place. We got Shanghai angus steak and orange chicken with fried rice. It was terrific and just $10.50.

Panda Express | San Francisco,CA

Rating:- 9/10

Documentary

We got back and watched a few episodes of the Madeleine McCann documentary on Netflix before sleeping.

Tomorrow is our last day in San Francisco.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 7: Seattle,WA – Gas Works Park, Pinball Museum & Oldest Chinese Restaurant

Kim & Curtis Hale

Sleep!

We slept in until 11:45 this morning, partially by accident but also it was lovely to get some sleep.

We had our breakfast, showered and finally headed out at around 13:30.

2 Buses

We got onto the bus and had to change at downtown onto a bus taking us further north.

We got up to an area called Fremont and walked towards the Gas Works Park.

Gas Works Park

The gas works park is a park which contains a former coal gasification plant.

The style looks very ‘steampunk’ and it is a really awesome thing to look at. This place was used from 1906-1956 and still looks great for its age! This is actually the old remaining coal gasification plant in the US!

More About The Gas Works Park | Seattle,WA

We were also able to get amazing photos of the city from this view point!

Google

We were aware that Google had an office around that area too, so we walked down the coast line and then came across it.

They basically own an entire street of buildings…it was very cool!

Pinball Museum

We got a bus back towards the city and got off at Chinatown.

We walked for 10 minutes and got to Seattle’s pinball museum.

We had to pay a fee of $15 each and then we could play for as long as we wanted on whichever machines we wanted!

We had a really great time playing all of the machines. They were also layed out in age order, from 1960 all the way to 2018!

Seattle Pinball Museum | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 8/10

There were 2 floors to the store and we actually really enjoyed ourselves, considering we were a little sceptical.

Kim Playing The 1960 Machine

Oldest Chinese Restaurant

We asked for good food suggestions at the pinball place and were told that the oldest Chinese restaurant in Seattle was around the corner. That sold it for us, so off we went!

We got to Tai Tung and instantly noticed how old it looked, but in a good way! It has been open since 1935 and it has incredible character. It was also Bruce Lee’s favourite restaurant in Seattle!

Check Out A Video About Tai Tung Restaurant

We sat and were given a pot of Tea, water and then later, free cabbage soup!

We ordered beef chow mein, sweet & sour pork as well as some rice.

The food was pretty good, actually! The chow mein was delicious, with incredible beef in it. The pork inside the batter was good, but the batter was a little odd and the sauce a bit too sweet.

Tai Tung Restaurant | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 8/10

Hometime!

We walked back from chinatown to our apartment. There were some incredible views on the way, including a beautiful sunset.

We got back, packed as we leave Seattle tomorrow, and watched some TV for a bit.

Tomorrow

Luckily, we don’t need to leave too early in the morning due to our flight being early afternoon.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale