Tag: Vietnam

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 277: Auckland – Curtis’ 23rd Birthday!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We wanted to sleep for a bit today, but we both woke up wide awake at 09:00!

Kim went out and got McDonald’s for breakfast and popped to the shop to get some ingredients for a surprise for Curtis!

In the morning, Kim made mini cinnamon buns, which were great!

Homemade_Cinammon_Buns

Other than this, we did absolutely nothing all day! We played games together, watched TV together and just chilled out. Perfect!

We did have to do some shopping, but that also meant a visit to Little Things again for a coffee, which is now our Sunday tradition.

We finished the shopping and came home. Kim looked up some places for dinner and decided on Tok Tok in Takapuna, which is an Asian fusion restaurant we heard a lot of good things about.

For starters, we shared a Wagyu beef & sriratcha mayo steamed bun which was divine!

Wagyu_Steamed_Bun

For the rest of our meal, we had Shaking Beef (beef with some sort of sauce and vegetables) and crispy duck!

The beef was so-so but the duck was excellent. lovely and crispy!

For dessert, we saw some other people had Vietnamese coffee, so we had one of those each which were amazing as always!

Vietnamese_Coffee

Interesting For From Curtis Here!

We got home around 21:00 and it felt really late! We chilled out for the rest of the evening, had a beer and a whiskey and headed to bed.

It’s been the perfect birthday for Curtis, just completely relaxing and eating great food.

Curtis is off to a client in Thames for the day tomorrow, which is a 1.5 hour drive away so that will be fun!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

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Auckland

Place 49 – Day 247: Auckland – Samsung Galaxy S9

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ day;

Curtis got to work and answered emails and checked the helpdesk.

For most of the day, there wasn’t a huge amount to do. This did mean that Curtis could catch up on some training, though!

Curtis left the office at 16:30 and got home around 16:50.

Both of us;

Kim went to the gym in the evening whilst curtis set up and played on his new phone! Curtis got a Samsung galaxy S9 and it’s great! This should also help us get amazing quality photos during the rest of our travels.

Kim made sausage, mash and vegetables for dinner which was excellent!

Sausage_Mash

We watched some YouTube videos and then went to sleep. The evening disappeared today!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 246: Auckland – A Broken Skate Blade!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at 07:30 which was not an acceptable time to be awake so we decided to force ourselves to sleep for another 3 hours.

We woke up and had some breakfast. We had cereal, nothing fancy.

We then had to go to get some shopping that we forgot as well as look for a jumper for Kim.

We did that and then got back home and had a bit of time before Curtis’ hockey game.

We did a spring clean whilst we waited for the time to pass! Vacuuming everything, cleaning the bathroom items and everything in between. Everything looked great when we were done.

Tabitha came round and we left to go to Curtis’ hockey game.

This was Curtis’ last game for about a month as he is away next weekend and then there isn’t a game for 3 weeks after that.

Curtis got changed and then a teammate noticed something off with his skate blade. The end of the blade had snapped off! This was pretty dangerous to go on the ice with so Curtis went to skate hire to see if they had anything he could use.

After some looking around, they had some fairly decent skates which fit Curtis pretty well, though they were quite uncomfortable!

Curtis was unsure during warm up as the right skate was not sharp at all and was sliding around the place! It took a bit of getting used to but the game went pretty well for Curtis, considering.

The game ended 1-1 and it was a good game too! Curtis got an assist too.

We drove home and had our leftover Swedish meatballs which was delicious again and watched some TV then had an early (ish) nice.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 245: Auckland – Breakfast Switchup

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at 10:30 and were both very hungry. We only had Weetbix in the house for breakfast but wanted something a bit nicer. Kim decided she would make crepes!

Kim started to make crepes, but they didn’t work out too great, so we scrapped that and Kim said there was a nice cafe in Birkenhead so we went there for breakfast.

We wanted a Coffix too but they were closed!

We got a chocolate swirl each and then went home. We watched some TV and YouTube videos and then went out to do the shop. We didn’t need much food for this week, so it didn’t take long. We got a coffee from Little Things too, which was a bonus!

We got home and Kim went right back out again to spend some time with Tabitha.

Kim’s Afternoon;

Kim picked Tabitha up and then they headed up to Albany to do some shopping. After about an hour and a half, the shops started to close, an hour before they thought they would! So Kim drove Tabitha home and then headed home via the shop to get some stuff for dinner.

Our Evening;

Kim got home and we just chilled out some more before we made dinner.

We had Swedish meatballs again because they’re easy and tasty!

Swedish_Meatballs

We ate this and then played some fortnite before heading to Netflix to see what was there.

We found something made by the creators of The Simpsons which looked hilarious called Disenchantment!

We watched this a bit and then headed to bed. A perfect Saturday!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 244: Auckland – A Food Court Dinner

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis only worked until 11:00, from home.

Curtis had a very busy morning and before he knew it, 11:00 hit!

Curtis showered, did one load of laundry, ironed and emptied the dishwasher before chilling for the rest of the day.

Both of us;

When Kim got home, we went to Glenfield Mall to get some food from the food court! We normally wouldn’t think of eating there but we saw a Japanese donburi place there last time so we had to try it out!

We got a bowl each where you get a choice of vegetables on top of rice and two meat choices too.

We both had the same vegetables (sweetcorn, peas, green beans & carrot.

Kim had two types of chicken and Curtis had lemon pork and soy chicken.

We took this home (along with a doughnut) and sat in front of the TV for the evening and watched a lot of TV! It was a great night.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 243: Auckland – More ‘Homemade’ Chinese Food!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis arrived at work and was able to start getting some work done. The day slowed down halfway through the morning and then of course picked up again after lunch! Curtis got an email about a database that wasn’t working. This kept Curtis busy all afternoon though it was interesting as it was something new to deal with.

Curtis managed to fix it and then went home.

Both of us;

We both got home and got ready for the gym.

We went to the gym and went on the cross trainer for 10 minutes to break a sweat before going to a few different workout machines.

We left the gym and went to the shop to get some dinner.

For dinner, we had duck wraps with spring onions and cucumber.

We also had some pork and duck bao.

All_The_Chinese_Food_Auckland_NewZealand

Bao_Auckland_NewZealand

We ate this and then watched a few TV shows.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 242: Auckland – More Flying

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis woke up at the same time as Kim which is later then he normally wakes up!

Curtis had to go to Wellington again today, his flight was at 11:50.

Curtis got to the airport and parked (incredibly far away!) and made his way in.

Curtis got through security and then got a coffee. The Cafe was upstairs and his gate was downstairs, so he had to go upstairs to get it and then go a long way (it’s one way up and the opposite way down) to get it, but it was worth it!

Once Curtis was at the gate, he did some work and then boarded the plane.

The flight was pretty bumpy but there were no issues.

Beautiful_Views_From_Plane_Auckland_NewZealand
Crackin’ Views From The Plane

Curtis got to the client and had a list of things to complete, which he did.

Curtis was at the client for 2.5 hours when he then left to go to the airport.

Curtis left a bit later then he wanted due to work but was still there with more than enough time.

At the airport, there was a pop-up craft beer bar which Curtis took advantage of and got a very nice Pilsner from.

Curtis got on the plane and had another bumpy flight but it went pretty quick.

Great_View_Dark_Auckland_NewZealand
Pretty good view on the way home too!

Curtis got to his car at the airport and had a fairly swift drive home.

Both of us;

Kim went to the gym directly after work.

When Curtis got home, Kim was home and we had some dinner (leftover risotto).

Kim went out to see Tabitha at a chocolate cafe and had the chocolate smores cake again, which is still delicious!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 241: Auckland – Lunchtime Braai

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis got to the office and got on with work.

Curtis also helped out with getting stuff ready for the lunchtime ‘Braai’ (A South African BBQ).

Curtis was pretty busy all morning but was really looking forward to the BBQ!

At 12:45, the BBQ got going! Curtis had two boerewors (South African Sausage), some ‘Sloppy Joe’ made by his colleague, some homemade ‘South African Style’ potato salad and two other green salads.

Curtis had a nice extended lunch just chatting with his colleagues!

In the afternoon he was able to finish off a few things and then he went home.

Both of us;

Kim went to the gym in the evening and then when she came home she made a risotto.

We had a but of difficulty whilst cooking when the ceramic dish we were using exploded! We transferred it to a pan and continued cooking. Dinner was delicious!

Curtis is off to Wellington for the day again tomorrow.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 240: Auckland – Back At The Quiz!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis hit every traffic light perfectly this morning which meant he got to work super early!

Curtis had a lot of emails from Friday to go over so he did that but also received a phone call. He was only on that call for 15 minutes, luckily!

Not long after that call, Curtis got another which was a little more urgent and meant that Curtis had to go onsite to the client. He’d never been there before, either, so it was good to see another client.

Curtis got there and they were having internet issues which turned out to be hardware issues (with a switch) so Curtis managed to plug everything into another switch and get them up and running again.

Curtis got back to the office and it was fairly busy for the rest of the day, helping someone else with some network issues before leaving at 16:15.

Both of us;

We decided we wanted to go to the quiz with Josh and Danielle this evening, so we left when Kim got home.

We arrived and it wasn’t that busy, but that soon changed!

We ordered some food and waited for the quiz to start. Kim got her usual pesto pizza and Curtis had braised lamb and chilli pasta.

During the quiz, we thought we were doing quite well until the last few rounds when we dropped off. Danielle got a lot of the bonus question right which boosted our points up! We still got second to last which is perfect as we win our usual prize.

We left and came home and it was then about 22:00, so the perfect time for bed.

This time last year, we arrived in Vietnam! Read about it in the link below!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale