Tag: help

Norefjord

Place 17 – May 18 2022 to May 20 2022: Norefjord – Back To The Farm!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1


We drove to Nordfjord to visit our friends at the farm that we visited on our travels around 6 years ago! The drive was through snow as well as a lot of tunnels and we got to see a bunch of new places we hadn’t seen!

On the way, we stopped at a bakery in Rødberg for a cinnamon bun and then we carried on to the farm.

We arrived and had some lunch and some coffee, as is tradition, and we caught up with the family who now have an extra child than they did last time which was lovely to see and amazing to meet them.

We were chatting about badgers being a problem and of course, one appeared! We had to chase it down and trap it.

We walked through the forest and cleared it up, clearing up rubbish and also branches that are in the way. The plan is for them to make it into a field that can be used.

We ended the night with some food and a chat. We got to sleep in the cabin we slept in last time which we loved!

Day 2

We had some breakfast and then went down to where the lambs and sheep live to stack a bunch of firewood/logs so they can dry and are stored for the winter. We love doing this so this was great!

We had a coffee break, as you should, it was really nice to sit and chat with them whenever we had a chance.

We needed to move some wood planks from a trailer onto the floor so the trailer could be used again. There were a lot of planks but we worked with Martin to get it sorted.

We loved the opportunity to feed the lambs, too! Some had to be bottle fed, so it was a super nice experience and something new!

For dinner, we had a big roast with a big lamb/sheep leg which was slow cooked. Kim obviously didn’t eat it but Curtis did and it was excellent! The vegetables were a delicious side too.

We needed to make a fence to put around the new sheep field, so we helped to get that done after dinner, which was nice and relaxing.

Day 3

We started with breakfast, as expected and then right when we were getting ready for getting some work done, there was unfortunately a crazy incident with a stabbing in the local town.

This meant that we needed to be vigilant just in case and also the owners of the farm went to see if they could get their kids from school and to see if they can help at all.


The craziness went on for a while and once the evening hit, we walked around and checked all the old fences for holes or trees sitting on them before moving the sheep to their new field!

We had a beer in the sheep field once they’d moved and it was a very nice feeling to see our work come to fruition.

We finished our time there with a curry night! Martin made some really good homemade curry and we even had a visit from one of their friends who sat and had some food with us as well.

We had about 1/2 a day left after this, which will be covered in the next post!

We loved visiting the family again and we can’t wait to head back, see even more farm improvements and help them out.

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 1000: Vancouver, BC – Away We Go!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got a bit more sleep this morning and then he jumped on a call with a colleague to figure out some strange permission issues.

There was a team meeting and once that was done, he had some tickets to get done as well as having to call someone and get something fixed for them.

Throughout the day, when he had time, Curtis got the packing done and a few things around the apartment, like taking out the rubbish.

Kim’s Day

Kim left early-ish and took laptops over to the office she was working from during the day.

After that, she went and got some breakfast and even took Curtis a croissant and coffee!

She got some of the laptops sorted today and it was nice to be in an office with colleagues.

Kim left the office around 13:00 and went bowling! She organised this with people from her company and a fun company event!

After bowling, Kim headed back home.

Away We Go!

Off to the island we go!

After work, we drove out to the ferry terminal and took the ferry over to Vancouver Island! We have a fun 10 days planned and we’ll be visiting Kim’s great auntie Linda for the first time in quite a while.

We got some easy food on the ferry and then drove out to Port Alberni! We’ll arrive there super late, but then we’ll be up early tomorrow to do some exploring!

We’re super happy to have some time to travel around and see things, whilst being careful, of course.

Today is also DAY 1000 in Vancouver! Crazy.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 969: Vancouver, BC – In Person Colleagues!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis woke up with no plan to go to the office until later, but he has some colleagues who are in the Vancouver office from the Winnipeg office, so he went in to see them and help them out with some stuff.

Curtis got there and then started setting up a laptop he needed to setup and he helped out his colleagues with the things they were doing, and he did a lot of tickets, too.

Once he did the tickets, he helped a colleague with some account set ups, and then he finished up the laptop setup.

When the setup was done, he did more tickets and had a quick meeting to discuss a software integration.

The late afternoon was taken up by getting a laptop of an old employee setup for someone to login to and then he started setting up another laptop for someone, which he needs to finish tomorrow.

After finishing work, Curtis went to pick up a package and then walked home.

Once he got home, Curtis played some games whilst Kim went out to an appointment.

Kim’s Day

Kim had another really interesting day! She started by turning up to a meeting with the executive team, so that was better than yesterday! They reviewed a few job descriptions and sorted a couple of other things out.

Kim then had a couple of 1-1s. Her first was to discuss a new hire and how things are going and the second was with her teammate to discuss projects and next steps. She then provided the weekly update to the company before joining a call with another teammate to update a few accounts and get some IT stuff done.

Kim then had a meeting to discuss a couple of processes and then she joined another meeting to give a quick update and get approval on a couple of things. After those Kim joined a meeting about non development hiring and the next steps there before joining an interview. After the interview Kim had a review and a quick mini team meeting for most of the afternoon. It was great!

Evening

After Kim got home from her appointment, we had homemade chicken burgers for dinner and relaxed for the evening. Just a couple of days now until Curtis gets his surgery!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 963: Vancouver, BC – Plums!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis spent the entire day getting a project sorted. He was unable to get it fully done, but made some more really good progress on it.

For the project, he had to contact a few people and ask them if they still need something and if so, he had to talk them through what to do.

That was the entire day, as well as a few tickets here and there, some admin and 2 team meetings.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day earlier than usual and met a colleague who had load of plums for Kim to give to other employees! So she collected all the plums then grabbed a coffee on the way home. Once she was home Kim managed to get a lot of admin done! She sent out reminders and notifications to the company as well as added to info pages.

She then had a connect with two of her teammates to discuss a bug batch purchase of stuff over the next few weeks. It was really helpful to have other people check that what Kim thinks needs to be ordered is in line with what they think would be a good idea. For the rest of the morning Kim was on a call to discuss policies, plans and other really interesting things.

Kim then had a 1-1 check in with a new employee to see how their first few weeks have been for them. It was such a great chat. She then popped out to a shop to pick up a few things ahead of a really interesting meeting.

For most of the afternoon most of the company joined a workshop on diversity, equity and inclusion. It was a hard workshop and required a lot of inward looking but it is was also so beautiful. People asked questions, interacted with each other and really got involved with discussion, it was a really amazing experience. They also spent a lot of time discussing hiring and how that can be made more equitable, which was obviously fantastic for Kim’s team! Kim feels really lucky to work with such amazing people who want to learn, do better and be better. After the call there were several messages stating that the call was amazing and Kim was really pleased to hear that people know the value in workshops like these and are excited to attend.

Kim then drove into the office where she met people throughout the evening to give them plums! She also joined a meeting once she arrived to discuss hiring and changes there withing a department. It was such a brilliant meeting. She then stayed on the call with just her teammates and they went over some of the amazing points from the training call earlier in the day.

While Kim waited for people to pick up plums she managed to get the laptop that crashed partially set up. Once all the visits were completed Kim met Curtis to exchange laptops for the remainder of the plums and she dropped them off at someone’s house. When she got back Kim cooked dinner while on the phone with a colleague, sent over an estimation to the finance team and then managed to finish the laptop and arrange a pickup. It was a good end to a really good day.

Evening

We had homemade veggie lasagne for dinner and watched a little TV before sleeping.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 936: Vancouver, BC – People Back At The Office, Again!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was up at 07:00 to get ready and walk down to the office. There were 2 people coming back to the office (there are quite a few restrictions in place, but they wanted to come back before the office fully opens again) so Curtis had to be there to help them setup at their desks and he also had some other things to do.

Once he helped these people with their desks, he found and sent out some equipment for a couple of people who requested some. That took a bit of a time and then he moved onto the next thing.

He had to test some things out in the boardroom so he did that and sent off a reply to the people asking.

There were some issues with a piece of networking equipment, too, so he took a look at that with some help from a colleague.

After he did that, he confugured a couple of laptops and then he had a bit of lunch, followed by starting the office cleanup, which entailed taking a lot of monitor arms off the desks. This took the rest of the day, but he did meet someone at the office to swap a laptop for them as they were having issues with their current one.

Curtis left around 16:30 and walked home. He had a busy, long, day but a productive one!

Kim’s Day

Kim had a busy day but it was interesting! She started with two interviews and the check ins just after and then at midday she went into the weekly recruitment meeting.

For the afternoon Kim was in back to back meetings, she had a couple of smaller meetings around planning and communication. She then joined the weekly managers meeting for updates and collaboration.

For the final part of the day Kim was able to get a little more admin done before having a quick project check in with one of her team members. She then popped out to pick up a laptop. It should have been a 30 minute round trip but took an hour and a half due to a price update and a system bug. Kim had to stand in the store and call support to get it mostly sorted out.

Later in the evening Kim worked on a job description.

Evening

We had some chicken wraps for dinner with a side salad and then Kim had to do a little more work.

Once Kim finished working, we went for a walk and then watched a bit of TV.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 933: Vancouver, BC – Trying Out EAP

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had an IT onboarding at 09:00 and that went very well! After that, he got settled for the day, got some admin done and took a few of the new tickets that came in and then had a team meeting.

After that meeting, Curtis had another meeting with a software vendor who were there to answer some security related questions.

Curtis then got hungry, so he had lunch and then did some tickets up until having a meeting with someone to talk them through how to do something.

The remainder of the day was tickets and answering people’s questions.

Kim’s Day

To start her day Kim joined meeting with a vendor and broker to discuss a couple of things. It was an interesting meeting and she is looking forward to seeing where this project goes.

She then had an awesome daily check in with her teammate to see if they need any help or direction on a few things. Both of the meetings in the morning overran so Kim was able to get a little admin done now before she joined her team meeting.

She then had a few smaller meetings, one to discuss a new role, the next to chat about a new system to get implemented and finally a one week check in!

Then to finish the day Kim popped out to check out an office space with her colleague. It was so interested and they will be having a trial day on Wednesday.

Once she got home Kim had her first EAP (similar to therapy) session. It wasn’t what she expected, but she is excited to be taking steps for her mental health. Kim will also explore other avenues for support over the next couple of weeks.

She then had another quick call to catch someone up on the meeting that took place in the morning.

Evening

We forgot to take out chicken for dinner from the freezer, so we had chilli we had frozen instead with some rice.

We had a walk and watched some TV, pretty much the same old stuff!

As of tomorrow, some more restrictions are eased here in BC, which may open some possibilities of going further a field over the weekends!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 923: Vancouver, BC – Very Little Side Effects!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Side Effects

We both woke up and felt pretty alright post vaccine.

Curtis’ muscles felt a little weird and walking felt like he was floating for the first couple of hours of the day, but after that he was all good. Kim has no side effects and Curtis’ arm actually stopped hurting by the evening which is excellent! Pretty lucky on our part.

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had some tickets to do in the morning but had no meetings until around 11:00.

At 11:00, Curtis had his meeting with someone to help them with an issue they had and it was a quick call.

He was then able to complete some more tickets before lunch.

After lunch, Curtis had a team meeting that actually overran as they were all having a good chat about random things! That took him to the end of the day.

Curtis actually got a new headset for his Xbox in the mail, so he set that up and played some games whilst Kim was on a work call.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a slightly slower morning today, she got ready at her own pace and made sure she was feeling okay from the vaccination. She felt fine and went right into a meeting to go over planning and next steps for a few things.

She then joined a few check in meetings before having a discussion about hiring. For the early afternoon Kim ordered the remaining gift cards.

Before the trivia night Kim had another quick planning session and then she joined a call to help set up the event.

For the afternoon Kim joined in the trivia games! There were quizzes, tongue twisters and then everyone jumped into a game of skribbl. It was so much fun and Kim especially enjoyed it as she helped with the set up before but was able to just join in and enjoy the event. After a few people stayed to play more games and just hang out and chat. It was so great!

Evening

It was double takeaway week, as Friday has to be a takeaway day and yesterday we had pizza as a celebration to getting our first vaccine.

We ordered some McDonald’s and ate that whilst watching some TV. We had some drinks earlier in the evening and were feeling those, so the food was a big help!

We relaxed for the evening and neither of us could believe it was already the weekend!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 915: Vancouver, BC – Close, But Not Quite!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had some messages to deal with in the morning and then he had a training session ran by one of his colleagues.

He had a few tickets to get done, one of which took a while but he worked through it with someone on a Zoom call and got it sorted.

There were a few discussions about a couple of different things that Curtis had throughout the day and then the afternoon was dominated with getting some policies up to date and making changes to those.

It was hockey time once again this evening!

Curtis watched the Leafs game, in which the Leafs were able to get through to the 2nd round of the playoffs! The game didn’t start great, with the Leafs being down 3-0, but they got into overtime after getting 3 goals to tie it! The Leafs were so close, but unfortunately they lost in overtime, so there’s another game on Saturday.

Kim’s Day

Kim’s day was a little less busy today, she still had time to get lots of admin done in the morning. She then went into an interview and had a quick chat after to discuss next steps. She then joined the weekly manager’s meeting to give and update and see where she can be supporting other teams.

She spent the last bit of the morning packaging up laptops to be sent out. After that she joined the weekly recruitment meeting and then she spent some time on some planning and admin.

Kim spent most of the afternoon working collaboratively with her teammate, she took a break to have a chat with a colleague. Then she also managed to order a couple of laptops and start organising the orders for the home office equipment.

In the evening Kim prepared for next week and set up a laptop for the final new starter of next week.

Evening

Curtis made Italian style tomato pasta with chicken, mushrooms and red onion for dinner. We ate that and relaxed for the evening, though Kim did get a little work done.

We had a nice late evening walk, too, which was needed.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 893: Vancouver, BC – Back To Evening Walks

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had an orientation planned for 09:00 but the person didn’t know about it so didn’t show up until 09:20.

Curtis got that orientation completed and then had a team meeting, followed by a meeting to discuss a new project and get that project started.

After that meeting was done, Curtis wrote out the project which led perfectly to lunch time.

After lunch, Curtis had a meeting with Microsoft to scope out a software rollout project with them and that has been scheduled in for next week!

Once that meeting was done, there was another one right after with his team to just talk about random things.

The remainder afternoon was then filled with tickets and he had to help someone urgently get something working that seemed that it should have no issues. He was actually able to figure it out with some help from a colleague, but it was a strange one for sure.

Kim’s Day

Today is Kim’s most busy day of the week. For the rest of the week Kim will be resting more. To start her day Kim joined an interview and then the quick chat after. She then joined a recruitment call to discuss an upcoming role.

After a little break Kim had another interview and review after. She then joined a colleague in a review of the candidate pipeline before she joined a meeting to discuss a couple of interviews that took place with the exec team for the day. She then went to join the pipeline review again, but then another interview finished so she reviewed that one with two other people and made a plan on next steps for a few candidates and roles.

Evening

We had leftover salad from yesterday for dinner and then we took out our recycling.

After the recycling was dealt with, we went out for a nice evening walk again.

We stopped off at the liquor store to get some drinks, seen as we were out, but really it was a nice walk in some lovely evening weather.

We got back home and relaxed, watching some TV and decompressing for the day.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 581: Vancouver, BC – Strategy Meetings

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a team meeting at 10:30 which overran but some good project related conversations happened. Once that meeting was done, there was some time get tickets completed and then it was time for another meeting.

The next meeting was a strategy meeting which his team has each month to decide what should be the goals for the month and publish those for the entire company to see. This went really well as always.

Once that was done and lunch was eaten, Curtis had a team meeting just to chat about anything the team wanted to talk about. These happen every month or so and they are certainly good to just throw ideas around and discuss things that are annoying the team.

In the late afternoon, Curtis helped someone who was having a whole bunch of issues with some software. He was able to help them troubleshoot and in the end, he managed to get it sorted for them. It was one of those issues that feels really good afterward you fix it!

Kim’s Day

Kim had a more open morning than in other days of this week. She had a morning full of admin and catching up and her regular weekly chat with her manager.

In the afternoon Kim had two interviews and a quick meeting sandwiched in between. After the second interview Kim has a call to review the candidates spoken with and also take a look at others in the pipeline.

Evening

After work, we had some pizza for dinner and then went out for a walk when it got dark. This is the best time for a walk as there is no one around and it’s nice and calm and relaxing.

We bumped into Kim’s colleague whilst out so had a brief (distanced) chat with her and continued our walk. We stopped at Dairy Queen to get some ice cream on the way back.

We finished up Drive To Survive and then watched a couple of other bits of TV before sleeping. We didn’t seem to sleep great last night and Curtis has a 09:00 meeting, so he’ll need to be up early!


This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale