Tag: Mac

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 997: Vancouver, BC – Nearly Done!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis went right to the office this morning. He had to get a laptop setup and sent out for someone.

Whilst he was doing this, another laptop arrived that he was waiting on, so he got that setup too.

Whilst he was there, he got a lot more of the remaining office tasks sorted out. He needed to add more monitor arms to some desks as well as order more monitors and cables ready for everyone to return to the office.

There was a pile of e-waste for Curtis to go through and take down the asset numbers to mark those as ‘disposed of’ so the records are correct.

He helped out some people in the office with moving some things and he also got some tickets done, as well as answering some messages from people.

The second laptop Curtis setup was being a pain, so he had to start again at 15:30! He managed to get it done before he finished for the day, though.

Curtis walked home and picked up coffee for him and Kim as Kim needed to work late tonight.

Kim’s Day

Kim mostly just had meetings today! She started with an interview and then went right into a 1-1 with her teammate to check in about projects.

Kim then gave her weekly update and the company wide meeting before joining a quick call to discuss the interview earlier in the day.

Towards the middle of the day Kim had a chat with her other teammate to help them build some templates, structure and a plan around social media and recruitment.

In the afternoon Kim had a couple of recruitment meetings. The first was to discuss the new plans for processes and the second and third were weekly team check ins to discuss the open roles.

To finish the day Kim joined another interview and had a quick chat after. She then spent the evening getting through some admin work. It was great to really sit down and get stuff done!

Evening

Kim worked for the evening, so Curtis played games for most of the evening, along with getting some other things around the apartment done.

Kim took a little break and we had some gnocchi and a tomato sauce for dinner. We watched a bit of TV before Kim went back to working for the rest of the evening.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 475: Vancouver, BC – Interviews Day 2!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a meeting right at 09:00 which was all about the new compensation process at his company.

After this meeting, Curtis did tickets up u til lunch.

After lunch, Curtis had a meeting to start yet another Business Analyst project and he then did some documentation for it.

After that, there were some more tickets and some admin to get done.

Kim’s Day

Kim got ready for the day by making notes for the weekly meeting and completing a few smaller tasks. She also tried to call a company that they have ordered a laptop from, waited 20 minutes to be taken off call only to hang up instead of unmute.

After the weekly meeting Kim called the laptop company again and cancelled the order, she will order it from somewhere else and get it sooner now. For the rest of the morning Mom reviewed a spreadsheet sent over about the facilities project and reviewed a few applicants in the pipeline for the new role.

Kim popped out at midday for an appointment and then when she got back she resent some paperwork for someone to complete.

In the afternoon Kim hosted another interview, it was so interesting and fun. She called her colleague after to discuss the candidate and the other two from yesterday. They then agreed to meet up and purchase a laptop for a new starter next week, so they both headed to the store and got the laptop.

Once Kim was home she worked on the HR system training and watched q few videos on how to set the system up. Most of it she had already done, but there were some useful hints and tips too.

Evening

We had more leftovers for dinner and watched some TV.

We then played some games together and watched a little more TV. It was a pretty unproductive evening, but we are waiting for new TV shows to come out!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 462: Vancouver, BC – A New Work Laptop!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis woke up and his ear was blocked again, so no hearing for him!

Curtis had a few meetings today. One of them was a 1 on 1 and then after that he had done lunch.

Once lunch was done, he had a strategic meeting with his team to discuss some plans over the next month or so.

After that, Curtis did some tickets and then the day was done.

Kim’s Day

Kim did a few little admin things before having a chat with a department head to get their thoughts on the facilities project. He agreed with the general plan and is on the same page, which is great. He also mentioned to maybe run a survey to get other peoples opnion. So after the meeting Kim started a survey and she wanted to send it out right away, but she wasn’t 100% happy with it. So she will think about things that should be included and make some changes before she sends it out.

For the rest of the morning Kim did a few small tasks like update a new starter and send over new job descriptions for people to review ahead of tomorrows meeting. Kim and her colleague agreed that they would set up Kim’s current laptop for the new starter and get that sent off in the afternoon. So Kim wiped the laptop and then made the new profiles, added some apps to the laptop and got it set up and ready to ship over.

Kim then went to Apple to pick up a new laptop for herself and then went to Fedex to ship the older laptop to the new starter. Once she got home Kim started to set up her new laptop.

Once it was up and running Kim sent out invites for the first round of the connect four tournament. She wrote up instructions on how it works and then sent out all the invites. As the winter party is fast approaching Kim decided to get started on the quiz part. She would like to make a 20-25 question quiz about winter celebrations, facts and sports.

Just before she finished for the day Kim had a call about the facilities project. They went over the new requirements and made plans for meetings tomorrow.

Evening

Kim worked fairly late this evening but once she was done, we watched some TV together and had the remaining stew from yesterday.

Curtis tried a few more things to unblock his ear which seemed to work a little, but he has an appointment tomorrow evening to get it checked out.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 439: Vancouver, BC – New Vancouver Job First Day!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was up at the same time as Kim as he had an orientation to do in the morning.

The orientation was very easy and quick, so that meant Curtis could do some other stuff.

Along with doing some tickets and catching up on emails from over the weekend, Curtis got some more things done for his visa. To get his certifications approved, he has to get them reviewed by Canada. To do so, he has to contact the exam body in the UK to get them to find the information and send it to a place in Canada and then wait for them to review them and provide the results.

This is a long process, but Curtis is glad he got that done.

Curtis also had to apply for another New Zealand criminal record check, so that was another thing he got done.

Curtis had a team meeting at 10:30 which was good and then after that it was more tickets, mostly.

The afternoon was a bit quieter, but some things here and there.

Kim’s Day

Kim had her first day at her new job and it went well! She spent a lot of the day getting set up and settled in. In the morning Kim attended a couple of meetings, the first was a team meeting where she met a few people and was able to learn a bit more about the team and what people do.

Kim took notes for the second meeting, so it was much more of a fly on the wall experience than being involved.

For lunch Kim and her colleague went to a nearby taco place for burritos. They were so good.

After lunch Kim organised the meeting notes and sent them across to a couple of people for their reference. For the rest of the afternoon Kim finished setting up on different apps and was able to ask a lot of questions, which was good.

It was a great first day and Kim is extremely excited for this next chapter.

Evening

Once Kim got home, we chatted about our day and then Kim felt a little tired as she didn’t sleep great last night, so she had a quick 30 minute power nap, which made her feel much better!

After that, Kim made some pasta with a mushroom and white wine sauce which was delicious, as expected.

We watched some TV and played some games as per usual.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 168: Vancouver, BC – Dogs!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work and right away someone grabbed him to assist with a visitor’s guest WiFi connection.

The fix was actually not that difficult, but it took Curtis and his colleague 30 minutes to realise what the actual issue was. Curtis’ coffee went cold whilst he did this too!

This quick start to the morning threw Curtis’ day off, so it took him some time to catch up.

Curtis had an onboard to complete, but before he could do that, he had a meeting with a potential software provider, so once he was done that, he got on with the onboarding.

The laptop was an absolute pain, so that took him some time, but he finally got it done and then had some lunch.

After lunch, Curtis caught up with some ticket work and did a few other things, such as reviewing policies and also some training for some new software.

Curtis met Kim and walked home.

Kim’s Day

Kim did a lot of the Wiki project throughout the day. The other things that cropped up were amazing!

Someone brought their bermesedoodle in and he was VERY well behaved and handsome. Another lady and her husband bought her two month old in a few times throughout the day so Kim had multiple cuddles and it was brilliant!

Some catering came over lunch and it looked amazing, so Kim spent some time setting that up and putting the fridge in the meeting room.

In the afternoon Kim popped across to the shop with her colleague and they picked up some flowers and decaf coffee as the coffee is the one thing that Kim forgot to order ahead of time!

The rest of the afternoon Kim was working on the Wiki project where she sorted through lots of old information to condense it down.

Easy Dinner

We got home and Curtis watched hockey. Kim then had to go out to do her energy exchange, so she walked up there and got a hot chocolate on the way!

Kim got back home after this and we didn’t know what to eat, so we just had sweet chilli chicken with rice and dumplings.

We watched some TV and went to bed pretty early. We were both feeling sleepy today!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 175: Vancouver, BC – Project Officially Finished!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work pretty early, and it was good that he did!

The project was now ‘done’, but there were still a lot of questions around it, how to do things, what about this etc.

Curtis spent most of his day doing things around that, but luckily, it seems to be calming down!

Curtis’ team had an important meeting in the afternoon to discuss what projects they will be taking on for the next two weeks.

That means more project work for Curtis, but it’s good because there is a follow on project from the one Curtis just did, so it would be good if he did that one anyway.

The afternoon was spent doing some research, setting up a laptop and doing some more ticket work.

Curtis left work and walked home.

Kim’s Day

Today there was breakfast in the office! Kim got in and it was all set up as a couple of her teammates came in to meet the delivery driver.
Kim grabbed a plate and had a little breakfast.

After this Kim started to clear down the pastry tray and collect all the utensils.

The reason there was a breakfast is for the company wide meeting that was occurring in the building. Everyone went upstairs to the roof for the meeting.

After this Kim went and finished clearing away the breakfast stuff and then helped setting up the drinks for the meeting that was going on on the rooftop. To set the drinks up Kim had the great idea to put a mini fridge on a wheely thing to make it a mobile mini fridge, meaning the drinks don’t ever get cold!

She then spent a bit of timing clearing the meeting room behind her desk and the whole front desk area in general. It now looks like a welcoming area rather than an absolute mess!

Kim then met a colleague downstairs to collect some pumpkins.

When she got back up she saw a delivery driver unloading lunch bags into the kitchen so Kim said he was meant to be delivering to the rooftop but he didn’t believe her until the lady who ordered it came down and said it as well.

Kim then started reconciling the last and final credit card. She did this until she went into a meeting with her manager.

They had a good catch up and went over a few things like the Job Description and how it aligns with what she is doing now. It was a good meeting.

Kim then decided to treat herself to a 3pm lunch!

After she took a little break she then continued to reconcile the credit card before realising that she is simply doing a duplicate of what the accounts team have already done, so she had a chat with the lady in accounts and they both laughed at how silly it was and that neither of them noticed!

Kim then spent some time setting up for the following day by making notes for herself and attempting to see what needed to be done.

Kim then potted around with other things while she waited for the upstairs.meeting to finish so she could restock the drinks and allow them to cool overnight. She also binned and saved food from the previous evenings event that had been left out since lunch. The whole kitchen smelt like sweaty cheese! Not nice!

Kim went to train this evening and it wasn’t great.

She was able to try the first combo but her full run through went terribly!

Packing Again & Bake Off Final!

We have a week off starting Thursday, so we need to get packed so we can fly out tomorrow night.

We got some stuff packed, either side of Kim returning from work and returning from training.

We got almost everything ready to go and then watched the final of the Great British Bake Off.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 143: Vancouver, BC – Helping Strangers

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work and there were a lot of new tickets, so he went through those and started fixing stuff!

He did that for a while and then looked into purchasing laptop for someone, which took way longer then expected.

After lunch, Curtis spent all afternoon seeing how his project would work on a mac as he forgot to do that!

Once he figure it out, he took some screenshots and put them into the guide.

On the way to meet Kim wwhilst walking home, Curtis was stopped by two girls who said they had a school project and wanted him to help them.

They played him some music and asked him what language he thought it was (it was Persian) and what he thought of the song. Random but something interesting!

Once Curtis finished that, Kim showed up and we walked home.

Kim’s Day

This morning Kim had the socil team meeting, so she spent a bot of time preparing for that by organising the minutes from the last meeting and arranging the talking points for today’s. Other than that Kim took calls and ad hoc tasks for some of the morning.
The meeting went really well, Kim divided up a few of the action points rather than trying to take them all on herself. Mainly because she isnt around for Halloween and thats where a fair amount of the focus went. They set up some good ideas for further into the future too!
When Kim got back to her desk she made a few amendments to the quiz she has made for the other office. This will reduce the amount of potential cheating and gives us the opportunity to do the whole quiz again in a few months if there is a want!
Kim then sat down for a quick lunch. When she got back to her desk Kim made a good start on the holiday party invites. She made a base template and had a section that is customisable per city location.
Kim then had a little impromptu catch up with her manager for about 30 minutes which was nice.

After this Kim looked at some options for the holiday party for the UK office and then caught up on emails before heading home.

Evening

We got back home and Curtis made his dinner, which was the same as yesterday.

We watched a 45 minute YouTube video and then Kim got ready to head out to exercise.

Kim’s class was fun. Its was the class closes off the month where she put all the moves she learnt into nice little combos!

Once Kim got home, she showered and we watched the next Great British Bake Off episode.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 121: Vancouver, BC – Back Into Work & Chores

Kim & Curtis Hale

Back To Work

We had to be up early again today and get ready for work.

We left a bit late, but we each got to work on time.

Curtis’ Day

Curtis did admin (clearing emails and messages etc) for about 30 minutes and then completed around 7 tickets in row!

He had a 1:1 for 30 minutes, which went well, and then he did some project work and managed to move on a bit with the project, which was great.

After lunch, Curtis had a couple of things to do. Some was security based and a couple of physical things around the office.

Curtis then had to setup a mac for someone and that brought him nicely the end of the day. Very productive.

Kim’s Day

Today kim spent most of her time organising travel and catering! When she got in Kim continued to finalise both travel issues from last week. She got one sorted early on in the morning and the other was sorted by mid afternoon.

Then Kim started organising the catering for a 3 day meeting that is happening next week. She found vendors she liked and made a spreadsheet listing the items she will purchase in in which quantities.

Kim was then invited to grab a coffee with a colleague, so Kim took the opportunity to go on a short walk and catch up about the weekend. When she got back, the weekly shop had arrived so she put that all away.

Kim then continued with more of the travel and catering work. For lunch Kim sat down with her team mates and had a good chat!

After lunch Kim saved all of the invoices she had not yet gotten around to.

After this, Kim had her 90 day check up! Its crazy how Kim has already been there 3 months! For the meeting, Kim and her HR team mate went to a local French cafe and Kim enjoyed a lovely custard slice.

When she got back to the office Kim went over a few things she needed guidance on with her colleague. She set up a few meetings, went over the catering Kim planned and organised the last tricky bit of the travel booking that needed to be done.

Just before Kim left she wrote up and sent enquiry emails to all of the catering companys to ensure that she was giving them enough of a heads up before next week!

Chores & Chicken Curry

We got home and Curtis got right onto doing the chores we put off all weekend.

Curtis got the washing up done from last night, cleaned down the kitchen countertops and vacuumed the whole apartment. It felt good to clean!

After this, Kim made a chicken curry a Curtis made the rice.

Curtis ate this but Kim did not as she was going to do some exercise so didn’t want anything too big.

Kim went to exercise and Curtis played some games.

Once Kim got home, we watched some more TV and tried to sleep at a decent time.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 114: Vancouver, BC – Bake Off’s Back!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis arrived at work and had some admin to do, as usual and then he finished setting up an old mac.

After that, Curtis replaced someone’s laptop and ensured that all worked for them.

Curtis then did a few tickets up until lunch time.

Post lunch, Curtis ststted setting up a new laptop, which took most of the afternoon, and then he had a brief 1 on 1 with the HR team about his first 3 months at the company.

Curtis finished the day with a bit of project work, as well as a bit of security work.

A fairly slow day but varied non the less.

Kim’s Day & Evening

As there was a new hire starting today, who came all the way from the UK office, Kim ensured that she was in a little early as he was due to arrive at 9ish. It 9.10 he is introduced to Kim be her colleague as he arrived before Kim and had done the tour already! Kim was also greeted this morning by an email from the close by hotel to say they have rooms available and the price was much lower than any competitor! What a great way to start a day!

Kim used her new extra time to catch up on emails, that she had neglected yesterday! She approved items, saved invoices and whizzed through!

To be prepared for the meeting taking place later in the day Kim went and stole all the best mugs and cups to ensure they would be nice, clean and easily available later in the day. She also hid 2 of the water jugs and our the frozen cut up lemon in one to allow it to thaw and infuse the water! She also put a load of soft drinks on a tray ready for later too!

Kim then went back to the hotel / meeting room booking she has been working on and organised with the building to have the 25th floor for 2 of the days and then organised internally to free up the boardroom on their floor for the 3rd and final day.

Before Kim started the boardroom preperations Kim collected and gift wrapped some company swag for the external visitors. She didn’t go full Love Actually gift wrapping but the thought was there!

As it was suddenly midday Kim started preparing the meeting room by making sure all the chairs were the same and at the same height and perfectly placed around the table. She then set the glasses and water jugs up before helping giving the windows a quick clean. Kims colleague then ran out to grab some snackables for the meeting so Kim set up the drinks she set aside from earlier and made a start on a coffee urn. When her colleague came back Kim plated the biscuits and set everything up.

Just as they were putting the napkins in the boardroom the external visitors arrived so Kim contacted the meeting organiser while her colleague made a coffee.

After the meeting was underway Kim took some time to have lunch and take a breather. She had a lovely catch up with a few colleagues and it was lovely.

After lunch Kim spent some of her afternoon organising meeting invites for the new hire meet and eats coming up. Then she spent her time catching up on more emails and reorganising meeting rooms.

Kim ended up sticking around later today to make sure that the meeting didn’t need anything else. While she was waiting, she stole a bookcase from a meetingroom and is keeping it at reception for storage!

Kim was then asked to call cabs for the meeting to head out to dinner. After the meeting left Kim then sorted and cleaned out the room!

Then she headed home, got changed and went directly to her class.

Then she headed home, got changed and went directly to her class. Today’s class was lyrical so they spent some time at the beginning learning 2 moves and then they were incorporated into a routine. It was so much fun!

Kim then was heading home and popped to the supermarket to pick something up and realised that she did not have her purse. Luckily Curtis was home so bought it to her and then they did the mini shop together

The Remainder of Our Evening

Curtis didn’t really do anything whilst Kim was out. He did a few things around the apartment, but mostly just played some games and relaxed.

Once Kim got home after going to the supermarket, we were both very hungry! Luckily, Curtis had done most of the salad and Kim just added the fresh roasted chicken from the supermarket and some caesar sauce and hey presto a simple yet delicious caesar salad.

We finished up by watching the first episode of the new Great British Bake Off and then went to bed at a reasonable time.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

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

Kim & Curtis Hale

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