Tag: team

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 998: Vancouver, BC – Why Does It Smell So Good?!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had another orientation at 09:00 this morning which went really well and the person was also very nice.

He had a team meeting after that and then did some tickets followed by another meeting to discuss a new process.

Curtis had to get a list of people that took chairs home which he needed to take from the ticket system.

Once that was done, he had some lunch and then reviewed some security systems to check for anything of note.

There were more tickets to do in the afternoon and then he had a bit of spare time to get some more Norwegian homework done.

Kim’s Day

To start the day Kim joined a meeting to discuss next steps with candidates for a role, it was great to get on the same page. She then later joined a 1-1 meeting with an employee to see how they are settling in to their new role.

Kim then had a call with a new starter where they asked how they could support Kim’s teams! It was wild to be offered support and someone turn to the department and ask ‘what can I take off of your plate’, which was so lovely and maybe even a little odd! She then had another 1-1 with a new employee to see how their onboarding went.

To start the afternoon Kim had a sit down with her manager to go over events planning as the plan she had for Friday may be ruined by rain! She then joined a meeting to discuss teams and planning with a department manager before joining an interview.

After the interview Kim joined another planning meeting about a different department. She then had a quick review of the interview before joining a weekly recruitment meeting for the same team.

In the evening Kim was able to really sink her teeth into some admin. She started making some steps in the planning for Friday and she was able to get a few salary based tasks done.

Evening

Kim did a little more work in the evening after she had an appointment and then we had some dinner. Everything outside smelled so good for some reason, all day, many different excellent smells so we were hungry for most of the day!

Kim did some more work after dinner and then we relaxed for the evening watching some TV.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 976: Vancouver, BC – A Patio Lunch

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’s Day

Curtis woke up and got ready and did some work in the morning, after a nice scrambled egg breakfast made by Kim!

Curtis then had a Norwegian lesson and right after that he walked down to the office.

Someone that works with Curtis but out of a different office was in Vancouver, so he got to meet them in person and the other people from the Winnipeg office that were doing work in Curtis’ office are still in Vancouver, so they all went out for lunch!

Curtis was able to actually eat some food, slowly, too! He had a blackened chicken rice bowl which was actually quite nice.

This lunch overran quite a bit but it was a lot of fun. Nice to sit and chat and feel a little normal, though it was a little weird at first.

Curtis went back to the office briefly and then walked home.

Once Curtis got home, he caught up and completed a few things he needed to do and then was done for the day.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a great start to her day! She had a meeting with a potential new hire and then she had a 1-1 with one of her teammates. She also gave the update in the weekly meeting before hosting a post interview review to see how it went and the next steps!

Towards the end of the morning Kim had a connect with her manager about a few things that needed to be sorted out before giving an update in the weekly finance meeting. After that call Kim had a couple of minutes to make some lunch so had a chat with her manager while she made and ate lunch.

Both Kim and her manager then went into a weekly recruitment meeting to discuss a lot of roles that are in process. She then had a quick meeting to do some event planning and give everyone updates on the couple of catch ups that are being hosted next month.

To finish the day Kim had an interview, a quick review and then she joined a meeting with a department leader to get them set up for interviews and iron out the phone screen questions they would want to have being asked in that stage.

Evening

Kim got back home from pole and we watched a bit of TV and relaxed together. Kim is going to an office to work all day tomorrow and Curtis has meetings all day!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 975: Vancouver, BC – Actual Food?!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

We started the day together, actually, and had a different breakfast! We are looking to get Kim eating breakfast, so we had a smoothie and Kim had some overnight oats! Something a little different, fairly healthy and easy to eat.

Curtis got ready for the day and then began work. He had a lot to catch up on but luckily, his mouth was feeling quite a bit better today.

He had some admin to do to catch up from his time off and then throughout the day he did some product work as well as some tickets that came in.

There was one team meeting to attend, so he attended that, and in the afternoon he was able to write up and send an email with regards to a project, which was the next big step.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a good day today! She started in a meeting reviewing job descriptions that are ready to send out to new starters soon before joining an interview. After the interview Kim assisted with a discussion about process and questions to ask that would make the screening process easier.

Kim was then able to make a couple of purchases and then join a product review to see if it is the right purchase for the company. She then joined the weekly team meeting to discuss projects and next steps.

To start the afternoon Kim had a quick hiring and planning meeting with a department to make sure that the current plan aligns with what they may need into the future. She also had a check in with a manager to make sure their new starter is settling in nicely.

For the rest of the afternoon Kim joined two interviews and their reviews. She ended the day with a call with her managers where they went into more detail on plans, projects and next moves for the department.

Evening

Once Kim finished work, we had some gnocchi with pesto and tomatoes for dinner. The first ‘actual’ food for Curtis since his surgery. It wasn’t super easy to eat and there was a little pain, but he managed it and was happy to have some solid food.

Kim did a little more work in the evening and then we watched some TV and relaxed.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 905: Vancouver, BC – Please Just Work!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had to start his day trying to fix the things he did last week for his project (again!).

The setup at his company is a little odd, so there are a few extra steps that no one actually knew about that he missed out so it wasn’t working quite yet. Once he and his team figured this out, he was able to fix it and he hopes it works now, but it’s tough to test.

After he did that, he had his usual weekly team meeting and then he did a bunch of tickets before he had some lunch.

After lunch, Curtis was surprised with having to do an integration with 2 pieces of software, but it was super easy, just took a bit of time.

Once that was done, it was time for some more tickets and general admin.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day with a little admin before having a team meeting. She then got a fair amount of paperwork done and managed to organise a survey to learn how to better support one of the teams.

She then had a quick catch up with one of her teammates before having lunch and then joining an interview. After that Kim had a check in with a couple of the executive team members before joining a second interview of the day.

To finish the day Kim joined a meeting discussing two new roles and then sat down with the team to discuss interviews that happened that day and review some of the pipeline of candidates.

Evening

We had planned to have a different dinner, but it takes too long and Kim had to work late, so we had some chicken with rice and vegetables in sweet chilli sauce.

We watched TV a bit and Kim had to do a little bit more work. We also and some admin to get done ourselves, so a nice busy start to the week for us.

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


Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 568: Vancouver, BC – Trip To Staples

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis started the day with some tickets and responding to some messages from people. He also got some admin done.

At 11:00, he had a meeting with a few people, some from his team, some not, to discuss some project requirements. It was a fairly quick meeting, but a good one.

Curtis had some work to do from that meeting as well as some other tickets.

Post lunch, it was mostly tickets again and a surprise offboard he had to deal with a bit of.

Kim’s Day

In the morning Kim had a team meeting to go over the projects and ask a few questions. It’s one of the first time in weeks that it has finished on time! She then worked on some admin before heading out to Staples to pick some up. Kim then took a few items to a colleague before heading home. For the rest of the morning Kim managed to get a few smaller tasks done.

In the early afternoon Kim hosted a dance off where a few people followed along to a tutorial for Everybody by Backstreet Boys and then did the dance to the actual song. It was a lot of fun!

For the rest of the afternoon Kim had various team meetings talking about projects and then potential purchases and then another call in regards to logistics for the party.

Evening

Curtis watched hockey after work and then once that was done, we had some pizza and watched some TV, including the final episode of It’s A Sin which was a very good show!

We watched a bit more TV and some YouTube videos and relaxed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 545: Vancouver, BC – Pancake Day!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was meant to have a call with someone at 09:30 but they had a conflict, so he just had a very brief chat with them instead.

At 10:30, Curtis had his Norwegian lesson which was great, and then he had back to back meetings.

The first was a project update meeting, with very little to do in that once, then the next meeting was a team catch-up meeting in which some good topics were discussed.

As it was the first day after a stat day, it was pretty busy on the support front, but it kept Curtis busy!

He was able to have a meeting with someone to get an issue sorted for them, and it seemed that he got it working, which was great as it was a long standing issue.

Kim’s Day

To start the day Kim sent a lot of emails to catch up from last week and get ready for the week coming. She then spent the rest of the morning in meetings! She gave an update in the weekly meeting, then she supported a project meeting and finally she joined a meeting to discuss new job openings.

In the afternoon Kim had a quick call with a vendor and then sent out a survey for a new event coming up in a month. Kim then popped out to drop off a laptop to someone and then popped by the supermarket on the way home to pick up a few things for dinners for the week.

Once she was home Kim worked on some contracts for new starters and got a few other things done too.

Evening

It’s Pancake Day today! Really, though, we just wanted to have pancakes, so why not use that as an excuse!

We had breakfast for dinner with pancakes, hash browns, sausage (for Curtis) beans and egg.

We ate that and had more pancakes for dessert with chocolate.

We watched some TV and relaxed from our busy days.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 526: Vancouver, BC – Anxiety

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis did some tickets in the morning and then in the late morning he had a training session about a new piece of software for everyone in the company to use to track career development.

Once that was done, Curtis had a bunch more tickets to do, it was a busy day in general!

After lunch, there was a security incident that happened which meant Curtis had to call someone and get some stuff sorted as well as having a chat with his team to discuss what had happened.

This took up most of the afternoon and it was interesting, too.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a busy day today! Her morning was filled with meetings. The first two were with her team and went over plans for the department and the second was about the facilities project. Both were so interesting and Kim is really enjoying learning and experiening new things. Kim also joined a meeting with a potential vendor after those meetings and that went really well too!

In the early afternoon Kim joined the weekly recruitment meeting and went over the current open roles for the company.

For the rest of the early afternoon Kim set up a pickup for a laptop and worked on research and getting ready for another meeting. The meeting ended up not happening so Kim continued her research and did a few smaller tasks.

Kim then went to the doctor where they did a couple of checks on her heart and lungs to see if the breathing is related to an infection or something else.

After a chat and the checks, the doctor discussed the possibility that the breathing issues might be due to anxiety, specifically around COVID.

Kim has had one panic attack before and the feeling is like a less strong version of that. They spoke about what might be happening and Kim believes that she was so worried about having COVID and possibly getting someone else sick that she had a small panic attack on Saturday night. Then due to the stress showing up as shortness of breath, which is also a COVID symptom, Kim worried she had COVID.

As a result of worrying about having COVID due to the fact that the breathing didn’t stop, but it was the worrying that caused the breathing to be strange. Part of the reason for this is that Kim is not actively stressed or worried about anything, so she was questioning how it could possibly be anxiety!

It’s good for Kim to know that it’s an internal thing to deal with rather than a deadly virus. Kim now has an idea of the specific thing that could have bought this on and will just be more mindful of her mental health going forward.

Maybe even soon start talking to someone properly for issues like that!

It’s been a strange day for Kim, but she is very pleased to know that she doesn’t have COVID and has a bit of a better knowledge of what anxiety does, how it can manifest and what might cause it, in this instance.

Kim has been really lucky with a lot of support from her team at work, her family and Curtis.

Kim is very lucky and very thankful to have such wonderful people around her.

Evening

We had nothing in the apartment for dinner, so we walked to our favourite Vietnamese place, now that we are able to go out!

We got ourselves some food and watched some TV whilst we ate.

After that, hockey was on, so Curtis watched that whilst Kim watched a movie.

We hung out together in the late evening and then headed to bed.

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 436: Vancouver, BC – A Virtual Team Lunch

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a company-wide meeting at 09:00 this morning so he sat through that. Once that was done, he did a lot of tickets and also had another meeting at 10:30.

At 11:30, Curtis joined a Zoom call with his team and everyone got to expense some lunch to have whilst everyone is chatting!

We got some food from a Lebanese place nearby and it was terrific food! Kim had some as well but obviously only Curtis’ food will be expensed.

It was a really nice non work related conversation and it went by pretty fast.

Curtis had to do an offboard after this and then some other tickets and admin for the afternoon.

Kim’s Day

In the morning Kim didn’t do much, she enjoyed the final lazy morning before she goes back to full time work on Monday! She is so excited! Just before lunchtime Kim went out and picked up the food.

After lunch Kim watched a little TV and then played a video game for a bit, it was really fun!

Kim spent the rest of the afternoon reading a document that explains part of the immigration process. As Kim and Curtis don’t have degrees they are hoping to use a provincial nomination program that will give them a better chance at getting Permanent Residency.

This avenue would also allow them to apply for a bridging visa as a placeholder for PR, which would then give them time to finish the application without leaving Canada. So Kim took a lot of time this afternoon to thoroughly read the document and research things she didn’t understand.

Kim has also been messaging someone who did the same process last year with the same level of education, and they have been a great help. Its so nice to have someone to ask about how long things took and rheir next steps and any bumps in the road they may have encountered! Kim has been worried about the tight time frame between now and when the Visa ends, so hopefully this process will help.

Having done a little more reading and asking of questions, a lot of Kims concerns are now slightly less daunting, which is great!

Evening

We went for a little walk in the late evening just to stretch our legs and also to get some food.

We got a chicken pot pie each from Urban Fare as Kim has had them before and said they are good.

We ate those when we got home and watched some TV for the evening, including Truth Seekers, the new show from Nick Frost & Simon Pegg.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale