Tag: Vietnamese

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 991: Vancouver, BC – Beach, Drinks & Snacks!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a company wide meeting at 09:00 which unveiled some very interesting news!

After that, Curtis had a team meeting and then he talked a colleague through how to do something.

Curtis then had some tickets to do, followed by a meeting to help someone with something. The afternoon was mostly tickets and then he also did a bit of security work.

Curtis got some of his Norwegian homework done in the early evening, until Kim got home.

Kim’s Day

Kim had another busy and productive day! She woke up and got ready. Then she had breakfast and started whiteboarding with her managers. They managed to get into some really great topics and iron so much out.

In the early afternoon they left the hotel, popped things in the car and headed over to a nearby cafe to finish the day. Kim was able to get a few things done while everyone else was on a call and then they continued the discussions. Later on Kim did a mini presentation and tour of some research she had been doing and was really happy to know she was on the right track and getting stuff done!

Evening

We walked down to the beach and met a couple of Kim’s colleagues who were down there. We sat and chatted for a little bit but then needed to head to the hotel Kim was at last night to meet another colleague and friend of Kim’s there as they had some drink tokens for the bar! Curtis finally got to meet her after speaking with her a few times on Zoom but never in person.

We had a drink and a snack and had some really good chats. Overall, a pretty fun evening!

We stopped at our favourite Vietnamese place to get a banh mi for dinner.

We got home and watched a bit of TV together and headed to be fairly early, for us.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 917: Vancouver, BC – Yet Another Game & New Tables

Kim & Curtis Hale

Hockey, Family Chat & Haircut

Curtis stayed awake until 04:30 and watched Great Britain lose pretty heavily to Czech Republic. Great Britain were tired and it was very obvious.

After waking up this morning, Kim had a chat with her family and Curtis went out to get his haircut.

Curtis’ barber, who has done a great job, is heading back to live in his home country, Australia, so it was the final cut before he leaves.

Kim spoke with her family the entire time Curtis was at his haircut and then once she was done, we went for a walk.

We got Vietnamese coffee and a duck banh mi which was alright.

We had our walk and once we got back home, Curtis watched hockey. The leafs lost, yet again, so they have just the one game remaining to get into the next round of the playoffs.

Kim watched a bit of TV whilst Curtis watched hockey and she did some admin.

We had leftover pasta for dinner an then we went out to get a couple of side tables that Kim found on Facebook. These are much nicer for our living room!

We then went to get a milkshake from McDonald’s and came to to relax for the evening, but then we had a long night walk!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 889: Vancouver, BC – New Vietnamese Coffee Place?

Kim & Curtis Hale

Family Birthday Chat

Today is Curtis’ Nan’s birthday, so we woke up and chatted with her and Curtis’ family whilst they celebrated!

After chatting with them for a while, we got ourselves ready and headed out to get a Vietnamese coffee and have a nice walk.

New Vietnamese Coffee Place?

We got a Vietnamese coffee from a place just down the street. We’d seen the place for a while and thought we should try it.

It turns out they also sell the right Vietnamese coffee, so we can buy some! We enjoyed the coffee and we will need to go there and try their Bhan Mi, too.

We had a nice long walk after getting our coffee. It was sunny and started warm, but was certainly cold in the shade.

Clock Is Up!

We put up the new clock when we got back home and Curtis then watched hockey whilst Kim relaxed and got some admin done.

We went back out to get some things from the supermarket nearby and then had some chicken wraps for dinner with homemade potato salad.

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

This Time Last Year

Mr And 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 478: Vancouver, BC – A Half Day

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis only worked for half of the day today.

Curtis spent pretty much the entire time doing an onboard and he also did some other tickets and had a team meeting.

Kim’s Day

Kim slept in a little (she doesn’t work Fridays) and then when she woke up, she had some breakfast and did a little work she needed to get done whilst she ate.

After that, whilst she waited for Curtis to finish, she watched a bit of the first Hunger Games movie.

Tacos & Coffee

We went out to get ourselves some lunch! We went to Tacofino just down the street and got ourselves a taco each.

Once we finished that, we went out for a coffee and a walk in the early evening. This was cold but really nice as there wasn’t too many people out, especially in comparison to the weekends.

We got back home and relaxed for a bit, then we went out to get some dinner.

We got some food from our favourite Vietnamese place, which was excellent as always.

We watched the film Juliet, Naked which wasn’t what we were expecting but it wasn’t bad.

We then watched some more TV and played games but we were pretty tired so we went to bed at a good time.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 335: Vancouver, BC – Delicious Vietnamese Food

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis did tickets all morning, and did pop down to take down some rubbish, too.

Curtis also had a team meeting during the morning and then had some lunch.

Curtis had a long team meeting in the afternoon and then had another call with someone on his team to go over an issue and see if they could figure out how to resolve it.

Kim’s Day

Kim took her first social call of the day from home and then went into the office after. Shortly after she got in she had her donut call which was great fun! It was with someone who Kim didnt know too well, but they had a great chat and it was lovely!

After the calls Kim contacted the coffee company they use to say that there has been a double up on orders and to cancel it. An order Kim placed last week wasn’t on the system when she called in a few days ago, so she submitted a new order over the phone and then today the original order arrived.

Kim spent a lot of the rest of the morning reorganising all of the remote social activities invites. She updated all the Zoom links and extended the recurrence to finish at the end of the year.

Kim popped our to grab some lunch with a colleague and then they bought it back to the office to eat and catch up. After this she hosted the second social call, which was lovely! There was a new starter on the call and a few regulars.

Kim then had a meeting with her colleague for most of the afternoon and then hosted the final social call, to which no one showed up except one person. So they had a chat for 10 minutes and when no one else showed up, called it a day.

Vietnamese

We had Vietnamese for dinner. We had eaten at this place before, when we visited Vancouver before moving here.

The price is so cheap and we really enjoyed it before.

Kim picked it up as it was on her way home and it was so fast!

Kim had a banh mi and Curtis had a phó.

We ate that and then went out for a bit of a walk. After that, we played some games and watched some TV.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 253: Vancouver, BC – Vietnamese Coffee Hunting

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up at around 11:00 today, and we had a great breakfast!We had french toast and Kim had chocolate on hers and Curtis had cinnamon and maple syrup, and both had banana and strawberries.We watched some TV and then got ready for the day.We did very little during the day and then Kim went out to T&T, a mostly Asian supermarket, to find Vietnamese coffee and the items you need to make it!Unfortunately, Kim was unsuccessful with finding either of those things, so instead she went to Costco to get a few things.Kim got back and we started to get a little hungry, so Kim made dinner!We had roast vegetables, including mashed swede, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas and more!We ate our food and watched some TV and then watched the film 1917 which we really enjoyed!We played some games and VR before heading to bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 206: Vancouver, BC – Interesting Network Things

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis only had a few things planned for the day, but that soon grew!

A lot of tickets came in, which Curtis took and sorted for people.

Curtis had to deal with a possible security issue, which took up quite a chunk of the morning, but he did enjoy that!

Curtis went for lunch with two colleagues. They had Banh Mi and Curtis also got a vietnamese iced coffee.

After lunch, Curtis had a meeting, followed by doing a few bits of project work as well as discussing a new project with his team.

Curtis also did some network things with his colleague who is in town from Winnipeg. He learned a bit more, too, which is great and always welcome.

Kim’s Day

When Kim got in she set up for the day and sent out a reminder email about a building run holiday breakfast party happening in the lobby.

Kim and a few others went down to grab some food, there was also a live 2 person band playing festive songs.
When Kim got back she tool some time to compare 2 pizza places as she wanted to try ordering from somewhere new.

Kim picked a restaurant that she and Curtis have ordered from previously. It has a comparable price, larger pizzas, better quality and all the dietary replacements that are needed.

Kim then popped out to the dollar store to grab some cheap holiday chocolates and mini candy canes for the chocolate vase at her desk.

People were very happy when they saw it filled with festive treats! On the way back into the office she picked up a box of 6 chicken nuggets.

Kim then scanned and saved a few recipts before heading out on another little coffee date! This time they actually went for coffee!

Kim and another colleague went down to JJ Bean and had a wonderful chat about management, how they both ended up in Vancouver and languages.

When Kim got back she actually booked the pizza for delivery as she didn’t want to place the order earlier over lunch time, that seemed like a bad time to be placing a 16 pizza order!

Kim the popped out again to pick up some felt for the party declarations and picked up the multipack of beer and case of cider for tomorrows afternoon drinks.

Enjoyable Pole Training

Curtis got home and had no plans to do anything at all, so just sat around and played games!

Kim’s class tonight was great fun! She ended up learning a move she tried a few weeks ago. It took a few attempts but she finally nailed it on the last attempt! She also learned a very cool fake bendy move!

Kim got back home and we watched a YouTube video or two, followed by Silicon Valley.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 73: Vancouver, BC – Free Coffee, Forgotten Phone & Costco Run

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work with 5 minutes to spare and was non stop from that point on.

He had a new starter to setup as well as 2 people to offboard.

At 11:00, Curtis helped someone move desks and convert it to a standing desk. Once this was done, Curtis got bought a coffee by the lady, which was lovely!

After the coffee, Curtis had some more of the onboarding to complete and then it was lunch time.

Kim met Curtis down at a Vietnamese place near Curtis’ work as they do a great Banh Mi. We got those but because it was far from Kim’s work, she had to walk back as soon as she got it.

Curtis went back to work after lunch and continued to be busy. He had to order a lot of items as well as some software.

At 14:30 he updated the AV system in 2 rooms and checked on them periodically.

There were a lot of small issues today so Curtis spent quite a bit of time sorting those, too.

Curtis’ day finished at 17:00 and he walked to meet Kim.

Kim’s Day

As Kim was walking to work she checked to see if her phone was in her bag and found that it wasn’t! This was not the best start to the day.

When the fruit arrived Kim put it all away, she ordered a lot of different items from normal so it will be a nice change.

Someone mentioned that they couldnt find any brown sugar so Kim then spent some time sorting out the sugar! Not exciting but everything is much easier to find now! Plus its easier to know what the stock levels are.

Kim then took some time to set up next weeks order and contact a few other vendors about some possible additional items they would like to stock!

It was a colleague’s birthday on Thursday, but she was away on leave so in the late morning Kim and another colleague ran to a bakery to pick up a beautiful red velvet cake and a card! As they got in the elevators who catches the door at the last second? The birthday girl! Sods law!

When they got back upstairs the girls prepared the cake and plates to ‘surprise’ the birthday girl! They got a few people together sang happy birthday and then ate cake!

Kim sorted a few things out before heading to near Curtis’ work to meet him for lunch. Not so easy to do without a phone as they had not really discussed a time or place all that well. They eventually found each other and sat for a little while.

When Kim got back she spent most of her afternoon sorting our various different social things. She set up the agenda for the social team meeting later this week, went over a few things for the upcoming summer party and sent out an invite to a meeting next week. She also ordered some catering for next weeks meeting!

At the end of the day Kim spent some time going through her phones messages. It was not interesting and mainly consisted of the dead space before someone hangs up. There was one call where the phone was just recording background noise of people singing in an office, Kim stopped listening somewhere around the 2 minute mark.

Costco Run

We met up from work and walked down to Costco, primarily to get meat but also a few other things like cheese and a cereal.

We spent some money there and then walked back, boxes & bags in hand, with all the items we bought.

Too Much Food

For dinner, we has a big chicken salad with a side of Kraft mac and cheese. It turns out, this was way too much food!

We were very stuffed, so we just sat and watched Vikings in the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 71: Vancouver, BC – Things Needed to Be Done

Kim & Curtis Hale

Hockey Stick

Curtis got up at 09:15 and got ready to walk up the road. He was meeting someone selling a hockey stick and it was only about 5 minutes walk from home.

Curtis got there, paid for the stick and had a little chat with the guy before he walked home.

Once he got back home, Kim was freshly awake and then Curtis made some cereal for breakfast.

We watched a bit of TV and then headed out to get stuff done!

Pharmacy

We went to collect something from the pharmacy but had to wait for about 45 minutes, so we wasted time by getting a coffee, which turned out to be a big mistake!

We went to Whole Foods who had an Allegro coffee shop which we saw does Vietnamese coffee, so we got a large one each.

This was not nice. It actually made us both feel a little sick.

We went back to the drug store and they weren’t ready yet, so we got a few items we needed, such as bodywash, baby wipes & hair wax.

We got the prescription finally and then walked back towards home. On the way, we got a few things from the supermarket.

Important Admin!

We got back and for about 4 hours we got some admin done. We sent money to our Canadian account from New Zealand as we both got big tax refunds there!

As well as that, Kim did some research for her presents for Curtis’ birthday and a few other admin tasks, such as looking for a car to buy and Curtis bought his hockey gear, too!

A very productive day, but not particularly exciting.

We had mushroom pasta for dinner and a side salad.

We watched some more TV and then went to bed. Neither of us have felt very good after the coffee earlier!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale