Tag: holiday

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 981: Vancouver, BC – Four Lakes Hike & Cat Lake

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at a decent time, slowly got ourselves ready, packed up and jumped in the car for a day of adventuring!

We drove up to Squamish to do a hike which takes you around to 4 different lakes. Overall, this was about 2 hours and about 5.5km. We really liked getting back out there and doing a hike, and managed to get down to a very cold river, too!

We made sure to keep an eye out for bears and Kim also got herself a ‘stabby-jabby stick’, as she called it, to fend off bears, should she need to. She liked looking like a dad on a hike!

We finished up the beautiful, calming walk and then drove ourselves out to another lake, named Cat Lake. Kim’s friend said she was there and that we should join them, so we did.

The road to it was a service road, so it was gravel and very bumpy! Kim really enjoyed driving on it.

We got there and it was very busy, but we sat dipping our feet into the nice cool, smooth, water. Kim eventually noticed her friend and was able to say hi, but they were actually leaving so we chose to leave as well.

We drove back home which took quite a while, about 1 hour 45 minutes, and once we got home we really needed a shower!

We had our shower and ordered some tacos, then we went to get those and ate them fairly quickly.

Once we ate, we booked some places to stay to extend our holiday we have booked as bit so we can explore some cool places!

We relaxed and watched TV for the remainder of the evening.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 492: Vancouver, BC – Christmas Day 2020 ðŸŽ„

Kim & Curtis Hale

We spent most of the day speaking with our families!

We spoke with Curtis’ family at 10:00, then we had some breakfast afterwards. We had croissants with strawberries.

Once we were done with breakfast and exchanging our gifts, we spoke with Kim’s family including her great auntie Linda, which was really nice, too!

After that, we got engrossed in playing Minecraft and then eventually peeled ourselves away to have dinner.

We had the usual for Christmas dinner, as you’d expect, but vegetables only!

After dinner, we watched Last Christmas and then just chilled out for the rest of the day.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 484: Vancouver, BC – Holiday Quiz & Overall Great Day!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Luckily, Curtis didn’t have to be up early today.

He had his first meeting at 09:30 and then was in meetings all day, again as it was team ‘retreat’ day 2.

He learned a lot of work related things but also some other things, such as information about Table Tennis as one of his colleagues. plays it.

At the end of the day, Curtis had a bit of time to get tickets done.

Kim’s Day

When Kim eventually found parking she went into the office and set up for the day double checking the quizzes and getting a few smaller administrative tasks done. Then she joined a meeting with the execs to discuss the candidates for the role Kim has been hiring for and great things came from this conversation! Kim also took the meeting to the facilities project to propose and alternative approach to something that had been decided earlier in the week. It was very well received and Kim has been given the green light to start that process and see where it goes, which is so exciting!

Between that meeting and hosting the winter party Kim called a few people to give them updates on their applications, both were lovely phone calls that are very exciting for the company and those individuals!

For the early afternoon Kim hosted the winter party! It was a two round quiz followed by some flexible time for easy games. The timings went out the window straight away and the 15 minute beginning hang out lasted for 30 minutes, but it was fun ans easy going. Both quiz rounds went so well and after the quiz a few people hung back to also play two rounds of Skribbl which was so funny!

After the party a few people joined another call to exchange virtual gifts! So they all purchased an egift card for someone else. Except that Kim was given a physical gift as her name was allocated to her colleague and she got a couple of hot chocolates and two chocolate bars! It was so thoughtful and sweet!

In the afternoon Kim called another candidate to discuss their application and that went so well. She followed the conversation up with an email before making a list for Friday and doing a few other smaller tasks!

Today was a really great day with a lot of wins and smiles, Kim had a lot of fun!

Evening

Once Kim got home, we had some chicken and rice for dinner, watched TV and played games. A pretty standard evening.

We can’t believe it’s Friday tomorrow, already!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 470: Vancouver, BC – Company Holiday Gift!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis woke up around 09:30 and had some breakfast, a shower and a coffee.

Once Curtis was done with his coffee, he walked down to the nearest post office as he had been told he had a package waiting for him that his company had sent him!

Curtis had to wait in the queue for a bit, but he got the package and headed back home.

The package was a holiday gift from his company, which he forgot they were sending! Each person got one of these and they contain a variety of snacks (mostly dark chocolate, which Curtis LOVES) and then he also got some socks in there, as well.

Curtis played games whilst Kim worked in the afternoon.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day in the office and she was happy to see that the most of the fruit flies were now gone. She finished the laptop set up and then had a meeting about the interview she was in yesterday and the next steps for that process. After that she called a company that she ordered a laptop from to see where it was, she got through to voicemail so left a message an emailed the company too.

There are a few new hires over the next couple of weeks so Kim went to pick up a laptop from her colleague, but it wasn’t ready yet. So Kim drove home and shortly after joined a recruitment meeting to go over all the top candidates for open positions. It was an interesting meeting and some candidates that Kim liked for a new position are moving forward and will be interviewing with Kim next week.

Kim then hosted the weekly social call, for a while only her teammate was on the call so that had a great catch up. Then one other person joined so the three of them played a game of among us with another colleagues kid and it was so fun! They were only small and quick games, but really enjoyable!

Shortly after that Kim joined the team meeting and they went over some plans for the next few weeks. Then Kim went and picked up the laptop from her teammate, set it up in record time and managed to get it to fedex before the cut off time. Well, actually she was way past the cut off time, but they were running late!

When she got back Kim had a call with the external person about the facilities project. They talked about how the meeting yesterday went and what the possible next steps are. Then to finish the day Kim wrote up a chart about the difference in contractors that the company has to give some structure to the HR system and finance. She sent it off to her teammate and manager for their review.

Evening

We spent some time together writing up an email to send to our local MP. We are doing this to see if they can assist with our work permit situation, which is ongoing.

Once we did that, we went out to get an onion and have a bit of a walk!

Kim made a vegetable bolognese for dinner which was terrific! We had the final episode of Alex Rider to watch, so we watched that and also played some games/watched other shows.

We both have the day off tomorrow, so we plan to hang out and relax!

Curtis got the confirmation today that ice hockey is currently suspended by the province due to COVID-19, but there is a hope it will return at some point.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Whistler, BC

Place 87 – Day 1: Whistler, BC🇨🇦 – Some Time Away!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast!

We finally managed to have some breakfast from Small Victory!

Kim had an appointment in the morning and then she picked up the breakfast.

We each had a normal croissant, which was amazingly flakey and buttery, and Kim had her usual coffee (Spanish latte) and Curtis had a terrific cappuccino.

We got ourselves ready and we managed to leave by around 12:00.

Off To Whistler!

The drive up to Whistler was really nice, but it was still smokey, so not too much could be seen.

We stopped in at Canadian Tire in Squamish and got some jump cables after our debacle the other week.

We grabbed a coffee too, of course.

We drop up to Whistler and the hotel was awesome!

We got upgraded to a suite, so we have a table and a sofa etc. Super nice!

Village Exploration

We got our stuff up to the room and then just went for a walk around to see different things around the village and different areas.

We walked through a small forest of sorts and saw a Blue Jay, which is cool!

We took a walk through the village area and spotted a few nice places for food!

Came across a nice bridge with an awesome river.

Dinner

Our legs got tired after a few hours and we began to get hungry, so we walked to a place we had seen earlier called Noodles and we grabbed ourselves a box of food each. Kim got a Korean chicken box and Curtis got crispy spicy beef with rice.

We went back to the hotel room and ate our food and chilled out in the room for a bit, then went out to get some things in the drug store. This meant we got to see the Village at night, which was dark for sure!

Drinks!

We went for a drink in the bar downstairs from our hotel room, which was a very empty bar, and then headed back upstairs to play some card games and watch TV.

We’ve planned the remainder of our time here, we’re here until Friday evening, so that’s great!

It’s Curtis’ birthday tomorrow, too!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 394: Vancouver, BC – Holiday Time!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis and a meeting at 09:30 which was to show someone around some software and see if he can help them with any questions they had.

After that, Curtis had his weekly team meeting which lasted for about an hour and then after that, the day got crazy!

Curtis did constant ticket work until lunch time, and then after that he had a meeting with his team to talk about some survey responses and statistics.

After that, Curtis had a bunch more work to do and had to reach out to some people, as well as ensure he didn’t have any work left for during his vacation for the rest of the week.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by working on some emails she plans to send out when she gets back from her leave for the rest of this week. In the morning she also set up an ad hoc visit for someone to work from the office, a return for a laptop and sent out a gift card.

In the afternoon Kim set up a couple of hot desks, just in case someone wants to come in while she is away. Then its all set up and someone else doesn’t have to do it! Then for the rest of the afternoon Kim sorted her expenses.

Evening

Kim got back home as Curtis was just finishing off our baked potatoes for dinner.

We ate those and watched some TV and then we went down to 7-Eleven and Kim got an ice cream there.

We got home and Curtis ate the remaining ice cream we had at home and Kim ate her ice cream.

We did some packing to be ready to leave tomorrow and we got a few things sorted throughout the evening, such as vacuuming and ensuring all the dishes were done etc.

We aren’t up too early tomorrow and we have a few things to get done then we’re off for a brief drive!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 215: Vancouver, BC – Sleep Recovery

Kim & Curtis Hale

What A Party!

We woke up at 12:00, after getting home for around 03:00 this morning!

We stayed to help tidy last night, after Kim’s holiday party, which she organised excellently!

We had a great time, and got to dress up which was fun.

McDonald’s

After we woke up, Curtis went up to McDonald’s to get us some breakfast.

Sleep Recovery

We do not over exaggerate when we say we didn’t do anything today.

We watched TV, Curtis watched hockey and that was entirely it!

For dinner, Kim had soup and Curtis had tortellini with a homemade tomato sauce.

And that was our day. Not all all exciting, but we were very tired (not hungover, though!) From the party last night.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 214: Vancouver,BC – Holiday Party

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work quite early and that was good as he had a few tickets to get sorted, so that gave him time to do so.

Curtis had a few meetings today. One was regarding the helpdesk software that the team is moving to, and another was regarding an upcoming hackathon.

Curtis is helping out on a team with the hackathon, so he had to have a meeting to discuss their idea, which he thinks is great!

In the afternoon, Curtis did a few more tickets as well as some configuration setup of the new helpdesk.

He sat and had a few drinks with some colleagues before racing home to get ready.

Kim’s Day

Kim got to go to work a little later today, but her day was filled with setting up the venue for tonight’s holiday party.

Holiday Party

Curtis got ready for the holiday party and walked to the city, with a stop at a clothing store for Kim.

This blog is going up pre-party as it’ll be a late one, but Kim organised it so it should be amazing!

We will update you tomorrow with any interesting tid bits!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 183: Vancouver, BC – Hot Chocolate Station & A Big Win!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work and had his daily meeting.

Post-meeting, Curtis did a lot of ticket work, mostly on new tickets that were arriving after the long weekend.

At 11:30 he had a demo of some software with his team, which they got a small Q&A for too.

After that, Curtis jumped right into showing his team what to do with some software, with relation to a project.

Curtis’ afternoon involved helping someone with some OneDrive issues via a screen share and then he used the quiet afternoon to wipe and setup two old laptops.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by calling a hotel who they are missing a receipt from.

It took 4 calls and a lengthy conversation to track down the transaction in question and then the hotel never even emailed it across meaning Kim has to do it all again tomorrow!

Just as Kim was about to walk into her weekly catch up with her teammate where they had a good catch up on everything winter parties, first aid and all the other other small things that get pushed to one side.

Kim then spent the rest of the morning sorting through RSVPs for one of the other offices and reminding other offices to respond too.

Just before lunch Kim made a hot chocolate station as the cream was due to go past its sell by date at the end of the day. So she steamed up some cream and put out cinnamon, hot chocolate powder and vanilla flavour for people to help themselves!

Kim then sat down to a quick lunch before heading into the monthly health and safety meeting.

In this meeting they watched some instructional videos on their specific AED that they have. They also handed out action items for everyone to do. Its one thing Kim is trying to work on, hand work out and not hold it all!

Kim then went through the responses from the Vancouver winter party and drew up a spreadsheet for this office too.

Big Win!

Curtis had a hockey game at a really good time of 20:30.

They got there and it was Curtis’ team’s first time wearing their dark jerseys, which look amazing!

The game went really well, especially for Curtis. He got two assists, one was a really lovely saucer pass and the other was after whacking away at the puck and a teammate came in and finished it.

Curtis also got a boarding penalty, which he didn’t mean to do!

His team won 4-1, again the leading team and it was a really great feeling game!

We got back home, cleaned a few things we neglected earlier today, made some lunch for tomorrow and that was that, bed time. Which we are looking forward to as we are very tired after a lack of sleep last night!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Bland Bay

Place 62 – Day 1: Bland Bay 🇳🇿 – Amphibious Boat, Waterskiing & Bonfires

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up nice and early this morning to get up to Bland Bay.

We left and stopped at the supermarket, which we arrived to just before it opened for the day.

We got all of our supplies, got some breakfast and headed off.

We got up to the house around 10:45, settled in and then went out on the boat! They have an amphibious boat which has wheels as well as being a boat so you can’t drive it right into the water! We had a great time in this boat as we went to a couple of beaches which we walked around.

We finished up with that and when we got back the sun was scorching so we sat outside for a few hours just catching the sun.

It was then decided that people would try Waterskiing! This didn’t work too well as it was too choppy, but people got a few goes out of it.

Once the boat was back, Josh sent out a contraption which goes out into the water and had a lot of hooks on it and catches fish, using a fishing line.

We all sat around drinking and chatting with all of the surrounding neighbours when a boat drove into the contraption, causing it to get a bit damaged and wrap around the propeller of the boat! People were able to salvage it and there wasn’t much damage. We were even able to get the few fish that had been caught on it!

Shortly after it started to get a little colder, so we went inside and had our dinner which was nachos.

We saw the beautiful sunset go down, too.

After it became dark, we lit a nice mini bonfire and all sat around that eating s’mores, listening to music and having a laugh!

We finished having the fire around 22:10 as everyone was exhausted but it was an action packed and really fun day!

Tomorrow should be just as fun!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale