Tag: Vikings

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 147: Vancouver, BC – Homemade Beef Stew

Kim & Curtis Hale

Coffee & Homesense

We eventually left the house and went up to check out a few things we needed from Homesense, but first, coffee!

Curtis wanted to get a cardamom latte to see if that is any good, but they didn’t have any, so he got a cappucino instead whilst Kim got a salted caramel hot chocolate.

We sat and relaxed for a bit and then went up to Homesense to find a few things. The main things we wanted were;

  • A duvet
  • An airtight contantainer for coffee
  • A dressing gown for Kim

We were able to get these things pretty easily and Curtis was also able to find a coat which he needed, and it was half price!

We got all of this (which was quite a bit of money) and then took it home before heading back out to go to the supermarket. We spent around $150 there which wasn’t too bad, but it was busy in there today.

Homemade Beef Stew

We got back home and Kim spent a couple of hours making a delicious beef stew with dumplings and a side of cauliflower cheese. A perfect warming dinner as the weather starts to get colder.

We settled and watched Vikings and had some ice cream.

A great Sunday night!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 140: Vancouver, BC – A Kid’s Birthday Party, Cinema & Nando’s!

Kim & Curtis Hale

A Kid’s Birthday Party

We woke up a little later today, but had no plans and it was meant to be raining, so we didn’t care!

We watched some TV for a couple of hours and then Kim got ready to head out. Whilst she was doing that, she was also trying to unblock the shower, which was a fun game! Curtis did some laundry and then Kim was ready to head out.

Kim set off to head to her colleagues kids birthday party! It is possible that Kim will babysit on occasion and this is a great way for the little one to meet Kim again as she came to the summer party.

The party was great fun, it was at a house that is a none profit organisation with a nice play space downstairs and upstairs has 2 lounges and a kitchen. Perfect for parent groups and parties.

The party lasted 2 hours and Kim had a great chat with the hosts family and ate pizza! One of the younger couples she was talking to for the party then offered her a lift to the cinema, so that saved Kim from walking in the rain!

Hustlers

We met at the cinema to have a mini date night!

We got some popcorn and a drink and then headed up to the screen.

There was no assigned seating, so we had to get our seats and were able to get some good ones!

We watched the film Hustlers, which we thought was OK, but nothing outstanding.

Hustlers

Our Rating:- 6.5/10

We left the cinema and went for eye cheeky Nando’s!

Nando’s

We wanted to see how it stacked up here compared to the UK, and it was alright.

The service was bad and the specific restaurant we were in was gross, but the food was alright! Curtis got a chicken leg (medium) with wedges and Kim got a chicken burger with corn on the cob.

Both were pretty good and Kim even said ‘the burger is almost comparable to the UK‘, so it can’t have been all that bad.

We walked back home, watched Vikings and headed to bed!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 117: Vancouver, BC – Lunchtime ‘Taco Friday’

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was busy right from 08:50-16:10 today.

Right from the get go, Curtis had some things planned and ready to get done.

He had to complete the cloning he did yesterday, which worked perfectly overnight.

He then helped someone having issues with Outlook on their new laptop. After this, he did some IT security work and then had to test the boardroom for a big meeting to ensure it was working and setup as required.

Once Curtis was done with that, he helped someone start a complicated purchase process and then began an onboarding!

A new person starts Tuesday, so Curtis had to get everything sorted out for them. (Monday is a day off in Canada)

Curtis took about 1.5 hours to setup their accounts and information, all whilst completing tickets and answering questions.

Taco Friday

Taco Friday is a ‘thing’ that people do in Scandinavia, for some reason, and we aren’t opposed!

We also do it from time to time, but this time it was for lunch.

We were lazy and couldn’t be bothered to make lunch, so we went do to Tacofino to have some tacos.

Kim got 2 chicken tacos and Curtis got 2 beef tacos. These were incredible. Spicy yet sweet yet meaty. Amazing!

We weren’t there long and then we had to walk back to our respective offices, but it was really nice to catch up briefly.

Curtis’ Afternoon

Curtis’ afternoon was just as busy as hi morning.

Along with doing tickets, Curtis had to setup a new laptop for the new person starting, as well as setup their desk and ensure it works.

After that, Curtis helped someone setup a couple of programs on their laptop and then he was able to get the fnal thing he needed to get done before having a drink with some people in the office.

It’s been a busy couple of days but he’s enjoyed it!

Kim’s Day

Kim spent a lot of her morning changing travel plans for 2 people. For one Kim had to change the 1 day trip for a visitor to the Ontario office. She also had to change a new starters return trip back to the UK, moving his flight to a week early and with a stop off in the states.
Kim also spent some time looking into the catering of large meetings going on the week after next.
Curtis and Kim had planned to meet up for lunch so she headed out to meet him.
Kim spent more time in the afternoon on the travel changes and finally started to get things approved and changed, which was great.
As we have a new starter in our UK office who is visiting at the moment Kim arranged to sort his business cards out while he is here. She added the info and sent it across for approval.
Kim then placed the order for the weekly shop to be delivered on the Tuesday for next week as it is a bank holiday on Monday!
As it is Friday Kim then went out to pick up the wine and beer for the Friday afternoon drinks.
When she got back it was time to set up the drinks and snacks for people to enjoy. Kim joined for a while and had a nice chat to 2 people over from the UK office before realising that she hadn’t sent across the business cards to be printed so she ran back to sort that. She then went back to join for a while longer before heading home!

Lazy Pizza Evening

We got home and Curtis played games for about two hours, some how, whilst Kim lay on the bed relaxing.

We finally decided to do something, so we watched a YouTube video and then had a frozen pizza for dinner as we had a big lunch, so we didn’t need anything bigger.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 111: Vancouver, BC – Ice Skating & Lion King

Kim & Curtis Hale

Ice Skating

We got up at 11:00, which was a great sleep in for us.We had breakfast and then got ready for the day.Curtis wanted to go ice skating to test the ice skates he bought before the hockey season starts just to see if they fit right, he can skate in them etc.We took the car for its first drive, driving out to the Botany 8-Rinks arena which took us about 25 minutes. The car drives great and we didn’t crash, which is a positive.We got to the rink and paid just $5 each for 1.5 hours of skating as well as $3 for some skates for Kim.The arena has 8 rinks, surprisingly, and we were on the figure skating rink. There weren’t too many people there and we were able to get our skating on!

We had a really good time but only did about an hour as we got a bit tired. Curtis’ skates are a little stiff, which is expected with higher end skates, but he was able to skate really well in them, so he is hoping they will work great when the season starts.

Coffee & Shopping

We drove from the rink to Metropolis, just 10 minutes down the road.We parked in the free underground parking and then went in and headed right to Starbucks.We each got a caramel iced latte and just sat and relaxed for a bit.After that, we bought cinema tickets for the Lion King and then went to a few shops before the film started.Kim needed to get some items for exercise, so we found some of those which was successful.

The Lion King

We got into the cinema just in time for the trailers and then watched the Lion King.We thought the animation of the film was amazing and it was quite funny at points, but Kim wasn’t too happy that they missed some parts out!

The Lion King

Our Rating:- 8/10

We Lost The Car!

We left the cinema and wanted to head home.The only problem was, we couldn’t find the car!We walked around for a while and eventually found it. We swear it was a maze in that carpark.We drove back home and we were actually very tired. We weren’t meant to do anything today and were out for 7 hours!Kim walked up to Canadian Tire to get some supplies and then when she came back, we watched some TV.Weirdly, neither of us were that hungry, but we did have snacks at the cinema. Therefore, Curtis had some toast and Kim had a pop tart.Tomorrow, we REALLY plan to do nothing.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 101: Vancouver, BC – Lunchtime Dancing!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis arrived at work to a stream of messages from many people about all kinds of things, both incidents, requests and questions.

Curtis spent a while dealing with some of these, followed by some tickets and then got onto setting up a Mac for someone in the Regina office.

Once that was setup, he got the instructions for how to send it out and boxed it all up ready to go.

Curtis tried to continue with the virtual machine thing he was doing last week, but it didn’t download properly so he had to re-do it.

Adter lunch, Curtis was continuing to re-download the file and whilst he was doing that he got some tickets done, helped someone with their monitors, provided a laptop for someone and started setting up a laptop for someone else.

It reached the end of the day and Curtis began to pack away. As he was doing so, someone asked himto sort something urgently for him so Curtis ended up leaving 10 minutes late.

Overall, a busy hut very productive day for Curtis.

Kim’s Day

Kim got into the office and went across to say hello to a colleague that she hadn’t seen since before her First Aid course as she went to the UK office and France! It was so nice to see her again! They had a nice little catch up then Kim had her breakfast.

A little later in the morning the fruit arrived so Kim sorted it all out. She then went back to her desk and continued with her ad hoc tasks until it was time for her 11am meeting.

At 11 Kim went to the Benefits Orientation. Kim learned all about what her company offers and not has a far better understanding of how it all works.

Straight after this meeting Kim went up to the 25th floor as two colleagues had arranged to teach a fusion dance class so Kim thought it would be fun to go along to. The class was so great and relaxed. It consisted of paired dancing but in a far more relaxed way than other more traditional dance styles. The time just zoomed by and it was a great success!

As she was so knackered from concentrating on not falling over Kim decided to take lunch after the class. So she sag and ate and was then joined by a colleague so they had a nice little chat.

Kim refilled the drinks fridge a while after lunch and made a few rearrangements to allow foe the more popular drinks to have a little more space.

For the rest of the afternoon Kim spent some time preparing for the summer party that is coming up during the week!

Our Standard Monday

We had our standard Monday once we got home.

We emptied the recycling, checked the post, completed the laundry and did the vaccuuming.

We had baked potatoes for dinner and watched some Eagles, YouTube videos and Vikings to pass the time.

We ended up sleeping quite early considering how well we slept last night.

For a discount on Capitola Watches enter code MRANDMRSHALE at checkout!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 94: Vancouver, BC – BC Day Relax

Kim & Curtis Hale

Quaint Coffee Spot

We had another relaxed morning and then got out the house by going for coffee.

We walked past a small house which has been converted to a coffee shop on Saturday so we marked it for our next stop!

We went in and it was beautiful inside, but we decided to sit outside with our drinks as it was in the shade and therefore cool.

Kim got an iced caramel latte and Curtis got a cappucino. They use the 49th parallel coffee, which is the best!

Cafe Cittadella | Vancouver, BC

Rating:- 8.5/10

Gym & Swim

We got back from our coffee and Kim wanted to go to the gym, followed by a swim, so that’s what she did. She loved it and even used the sauna briefly!

After Kim was done with swimming, she marinaded the pork we were having for dinner and then we went out for a walk and a drink!

Irish Pub

There is an Irish pub just around the corner from our apartment, so we stopped in there and grabbed a drink whilst sat on the patio in the sun.

Kim got a glass of wine and Curtis got a Guinness, of course.

We left here and went home to have dinner.

Pork Stir Fry & Cleaning

We had Chinese pork stir fry which was terrific! This was exactly what we were looking for for dinner.

We did a bit of cleaning, both vaccuuming & washing and then chilled for the rest of the evening.

Back to work tomorrow, but we’ve had a mostly relaxed weekend with bit of fun yesterday.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 80: Vancouver, BC – First Aid Course

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got the pleasure of eating his breakfast with Kim today as she usually eats it at work but as she is on a course this week, she has to eat at home.

Curtis left 15 minutes after Kim and was able to get to work at a good time.

Curtis’ day was fairly productive, mostly in the morning though as the afternoon was a bit quiet. That being said, Curtis was able to use the time to get some project work and laptop setups done.

Curtis left work at 16:45 and walked home.

Kim’s Day

This week Kim is on her first aid training course! The first day went very well.

There are 10 people in the class, 1 instructor and 1 auditor, everyone is really nice and there are varied levels of understanding, which is great!

The day got started with a bit of paperwork, no surprise there. Then there was a quick introduction between the instructor and everyone in the class. Everyone had to list their name and what they are most worried about within the course.

The course today covered the first and second procedures to cover when first aid will be required. They covered;

the scene assessment, effective communication, primary and secondary survey.

Each new topic had a small discussion time, a real time demonstration, a slowed down demonstration with explanations of what is happening and then everyone branched off into groups to try.

There will also be peer assessment at the end of each module and then at the end of the day there were varied scenarios that would also be peer assessed!

New Table!

Once we were both home, we waited for a lady to arrive and drop off a small TV stand that matches our other smaller table!

We swapped the TV onto that and then have the bigger one as a coffee table. Perfect for snacks!

Sloppy Joe’s

Kim made sloppy Joe’s for dinner, which were very tasty! We had a ceasar salad with it, too.

Kim did some more studying and then we watched an episode of Vikings.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 75: Vancouver, BC – Too Much Food, Too Early

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis arrived at work and had a meeting which is regarding security and compliance. It was a good meeting and helped clear up some things he was wondering as well as notify everyone about certain things they needed to be aware of.

Curtis made a big order from Apple which he had to get sorted out and speak with the accounts team about.

At 12:15, Curtis had someone coming in for an interview with some people in another office, so he had to meet them, get them into the boardroom and setup their video meeting.

Curtis had a laptop to configure but also had a meeting starting at 14:00, so he didn’t do that right away, but jumped into his meeting.

His meeting was again, very good and informative. It was over an hour long but it was with the full team about the plan for the year as well as completing the document that the whole company will see regarding the teams plans and goals.

After the meeting, Curtis continued with setting up the laptop and then even managed to start another.

He had a few tickets to do and tidy up some things admin wise and then he walked to meetin Kim from work.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by going through her emails and sorting all of those out. Then she got a request for catering request for later in the day so she put that through.

Kim then spent some time organising the travel for a visitor who is coming over in a few weeks. They confirmed their preference on flights so Kim booked that and was looking in to arranging his accommodation. It was Kim’s first time booking travel on this system so lets hope they make it!

It was then time for the social team meeting and discussed some of the things they will be putting on over the next few weeks.

When she came out of the meeting, she was met with a delivery man who was 30 minutes early, which was strange. It was then horrible for Kim to sit next to lovely smelling food for about 40 minutes!

One of the action points Kim assigned to herself was to create a Pride Bake Off for the Vancouver Pride Festival that will be happening in a few weeks. Kim has challenged her colleagues to bake or make anything and they will get extra points if it is a rainbow! Kim is very excited to be organising this and even made posters.

The quotes for the breakfast coming up came in so Kim evaluated them and proceeded to order which is great.

Just as Kim was about to leave she got an email request about catering tomorrow so she called up and got that all sorted.

Nothing-ness

After 2 busy evenings, we got home and did nothing.

We had dinner right away, which was enchilladas with salad like yesterday and then we got caught in a YouTube void and watched a load of videos.

We watched the first episode of Season 9 of Suits and then a Vikings.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale