Tag: visit

United Kingdom

Place 92 – May 3 2022 to May 9 2022: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 – A Visit Home (Part 1)

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1 – Andover, UK

We came back to visit family in the UK!

It’s been 5 years or so since we’ve been in the UK so we thought it was time to visit the family and friends in our home land.

We arrived around 11:00, got picked up from the airport by Kim’s dad and then we went back to Kim’s parents’ place to stay.

We showered and went right out to get our first food item that we’ve been wanting to get for a while…A baguette!

There’s a baguette shop in our hometown (Andover) that sells terrific baguettes, so we walked down to get that and have some lunch.

We relaxed for a bit but stopping ourselves from sleeping after the long travel.

We went to see Curtis’ mum and then we both went with her to meet Curtis’ siblings from school and surprise them! They were surprised, as expected, and they both cried!

After picking up the kids from school, we stayed at Curtis’ family’s house for a bit and hung out with them until we got picked up by Kim’s sister, Abbie, and driven back to Kim’s parents’ for some Chinese food!

That was the end of the first day, which was mostly just getting acquainted with the timezone again and eating food.

Day 2 – Andover, UK

We finally got to take the dog out for a walk with Kim’s family. It was nice to see the doggo again too and be able to take a walk around places we used to walk around a lot.

We needed to go to the bank to get some boring admin stuff sorted but it was good to get that done. We had to visit 2 banks in total but we did it all in a day!

There was a bunch of stuff that we had left in the UK that we really needed to sort out. There was a large pile at each of our parents’ houses so we each had a bunch of stuff to sort. We spent a lot of this day sorting Kim’s items and deciding what to keep (which wasn’t much!).

We had some leftover Chinese for dinner and watched a movie.

Day 3 – Andover, UK

It was time for another dog walk! We took the dog out for another nice long walk and had some decent weather too.

We then went out for brunch with Curtis’ parents at a ‘new’ garden centre, which was really tasty and nice to hang out with them.

Before heading out, we stopped in at our first UK shop on our trip so we had a great time walking around there finding all the great snacks and seeing how cheap everything is!

We had to get ourselves a UK SIM card for whilst we’re visiting which we can also use in other countries, so we went into the town to buy one of those.

Curtis then went back to his family home and cleared out his items that he left 5 years ago and mostly just got rid of everything!

In the evening, there was a really lovely family BBQ at Curtis’ family’s house with a lot of his family as well as Kim’s family so it was a really great gathering with great weather.

Day 4 – Andover, UK

We went out for breakfast with Kim’s family down at a local pub and then went out to Basingstoke for some shopping and wandering around! We used to love going there for shopping and a few other things so it was good to see what was there and Kim was able to take a look at a few shoe shops, too, to see if she could find something she needed.

Once the evening came, we met with a bunch of friends and had some drinks and pizza! We hadn’t seen most of them for many, many years so it was a lot of catching up, chatting and having a really good time!

We found it easier to stay in Basingstoke, so we booked in to a Premier Inn, which is one of our favourite chain hotel brands in the UK so we wanted to stay there too!

Day 5 – Andover, UK

We had breakfast out at the pub again on this morning and then we went over to visit Kim’s sister at her house and see the house for the first time which was amazing to see!

We then had a really nice picnic in the garden as it was Kim’s mum’s birthday! This one was of our more relaxed days which was really nice to have.

Day 6 – Andover, UK

This was a day of meeting with our friends!

Kim met with 2 friends separately, Ashleigh & Eloise, and she had a bunch of really great conversations with them!

Whilst Kim did that, Curtis met with Shane, who was his best man at his wedding. He had lunch with him, and some drinks which was great to catch up. There was a lot to talk about.

We went out to Curtis’ auntie’s house to see her and her family and it was very, very nice to see them.

Dinner was at Curtis’ family’s house which was really nice to get some time with them and Curtis got some home cooking from mum!

Day 7 – London, UK

We took the train to London in the morning which was exciting! We love taking the train and it was super easy from where we used to live.

We did some walking around/shopping, as you do in London, before we went to meet Kim’s cousin, Bethany, in Camden!

Kim used to love going to Camden so we went there to go to the food market with her cousin, who is super lovely and we had a great time chatting and wandering around with her.

Once we finished up with Bethany, we took a train to a place we’d never been to before called Kingston. We met with a friend who lives there and had some dinner with her as well as a nice walk along the river.

We had to take a couple of trains to get back to Andover but we were close to the final train so we had to get a move on and do that! It took a while but we were able to get back home for some sleep after a really busy but amazing day!

We were away for a long time, so this is just part one, but it’s been a while since there were any blogs, but enjoy!

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 992: Vancouver, BC – More Office Setup & Meteor Shower!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis walked down to the office in the morning and got right into more office setup.

He and his colleague got all desks setup with montor arms (other than the ones that couldn’t be done as there were none left). Also, about 95% of desks now have monitors, other than the few that don’t due to running out of them.

Curtis spent most of the day doing this, as well as figuring out a few things he needed to figure out with his colleague about how desks will be setup. They got some permanent desks setup for people coming to the office full time, and then he sorted out some cables again and figured out which to keep and which to throw away.

Curtis walked back home in time to walk to get the car with Kim.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a really nice day today. It started with a 1-1 with a new employee and then a really interesting and useful chat with her manager and someone from the recruitment firm they work with. They caught each other up on work and bounced ideas off each other, it was great!

She then joined the weekly department check in and then finished a laptop at the same time. Then it was time for the regular weekly recruitment meeting. Kim also stole some time towards the end to discuss another role once everyone else has left.

In the afternoon Kim had a 1-1 with a manager to discuss a few of their new starters and how they are doing. Then she tried sorting out some charges from Apple, but had no luck!

She finished her day with a call with a teammate to see how they are doing.

Once she got back Kim managed to get a few quick wins done by sending emails and sending out an updated party invite. She then dropped some letters off to her colleague and stayed to play with the kittens.

Evening

We walked down to the garage to get the car, getting a coffee on the way, and once we picked that up we headed to the store to get something for dinner.

We got home and Kim did a little bit of work before going out to see a friend for a little bit.

We went to the gym at 21:00 for an hour which felt really good, and then when we got back up to the apartment, we had chicken ceasar salad for dinner and then we hung out and watched a bit of TV.

Kim went out at 23:00 to see her friend and drove out to a beach to look at the meteor shower that was happening today! She even managed to see a couple!

Kim headed home around 1:15am and then we went right to bed, after a little McDonald’s!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 194: Vancouver, BC – Exciting News!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Coffee & Weekly Shop

We went out for our usual coffee and weekly shop this early afternoon.

We had a grilled cheese for breakfast and then got ready to head out.

We got christmassy coffees today. Curtis got a cinnamon dolce latte which is phenomenal and Kim got the equally phenomenal peppermint mocha.

Once we were done with coffee, we went up to Homesense so Kim could look for a new purse. We found one and just bought that.

We went from here to the supermarket where we did quite a quick, small shop for the week.

Hockey, Exciting News & Curry

We got back home and Curtis watched hockey. Kim got some meal prep done and put some things away into the freezer for future use.

We got a message from our friends Danielle & Josh in New Zealand who said they would like to chat with us! We spoke with them and they said they are planning to come out and see us next year!

We were so excited, we’ve already started planning what we want to do with them.

We chatted with them for quite a while, just catching up and talking about what we might do when they’re here.

We are very excited to see them again as we have missed them!

After hockey was done, we ordered a curry! We learned from the portion sizes last time and just ordered one curry, some popodoms, a samosa each and one naan.

This was exactly the food we wanted! We watched Stuber whilst we ate which was a silly film, but very funny and easy to watch.

After that, we watched a couple more TV shows and that was our night!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 362: Auckland – 10+ Hours of Work

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis’ day was way busier then it should have been!

Upon getting to the client, there was just 3 users to complete and a couple of extra machines, so Curtis assumed it would be a quick easy day…but nope!

The first machine was completed quickly and then Curtis had to wait for another person to arrive at the office to complete his laptop. Once he arrived, Curtis completed his laptop also. This one also didn’t take too long either, so it definitely seemed like a good start!

Curtis went to have a walk and get a coffee for about 10 minutes and then went right back to it.

After the walk, Curtis completed one of the other PCs he needed to get done so he had just 1 of those to do and 1 more user.

Curtis did the user at 14:00 and thought it would be quick, but it took until 17:00 to do, and it wasn’t even complete entirely!

Curtis drove home and arrived there at 17:30…He had worked over 10 hours already and still had a bit more to do when he got home.

Both of us;

Kim almost had the dinner completed by the time Curtis came home, which was really nice for him. We had the final remains of our pulled pork belly.

We went for a walk again after work because it was lovely weather and Curtis definitely needed a walk!

We got some nice photos, too.

We got back home and watched some TV…we are looking forward to it being the weekend!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 311: Auckland – Client Visit Makes A Busy Day

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis woke up surprisingly easy this morning!

The milk was still frozen, so Curtis was unable to eat at home, meaning he had to take his breakfast to work.

Once he got to work, he ate his breakfast, made a coffee and got into reading his emails.

Curtis then found out he had to go to a client for what turned out to be most of the morning and some of the afternoon.

A new colleague of Curtis’ started today, so he met him and then left to go to the client.

He left at 09:00 and was at the first site by 09:25. Curtis was there for a couple of hours and then drove to the other site, where he stated for an hour and a half, helping people out, and then got back to the office at 13:00.

Curtis then had lunch and after lunch had to catch up as well as complete admin.

Curtis then left for the day and the traffic was very light too, which helped!

Both of us;

Kim got home from work and we had some dinner. Kim made a chicken and bacon pasta.

We watched some videos followed by NCIS:LA and then Kim booked some things for our road trip and Curtis played Call of Duty with Josh and Danielle.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 303: Auckland – Broken PCs, Call of Duty Release & Drinks with Friends

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis got to be office early, as per usual, and was able to finish setting up a laptop he was setting up.

Shortly after, Curtis got a phone call about someone’s PC not starting up. Curtis sent them some guides of things to try but it was no use, so Curtis went to pick up the PC in the afternoon.

Once Curtis got back to the office, he spent the whole time trying to fix that PC.

Eventually, after a couple of hours, Curtis was able to fix the PC, but then it was home time.

The traffic wasn’t great on the way back, but Curtis was still home at a good time.

Both of us;

Kim got home a lot earlier as her work had a power cut so she got to go home early!

Kim went out with a work friend and had some drinks and some food.

Kim then went to her friends house and played on their virtual reality games, which was fun!

Curtis spent the whole evening and night playing the new Call of Duty with Danielle and Josh!

Curtis picked up Kim from her colleagues and then we came home and went right to bed.

We’re going shopping with Danielle and Josh tomorrow.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 286: Auckland – Hail

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis had a good sleep last night, which was a relief.

Curtis got to work at the usual time and began working on his cases and answering emails.

He had a big chunk of work to get done which he worked on throughout the day.

During lunch, Curtis had to go down to a client as they had an external contractor arrive which Curtis had to help with. Originally, Curtis drove down to the client which was in the city. Unfortunately, there was no parking anywhere and it was raining and hailing so Curtis went back to work and got dropped off to the client by his boss.

Curtis spent a while at the client and then risked the walk back. The wind was so powerful that Curtis nearly got blown over a few times!

Curtis got back to the office, finished off a few cases and did some admin before leaving the office at 16:10.

Both of us;

When we were both home, Kim spent most of the evening booking some things for a trip we are taking soon.

We had leftover chilli for dinner and Curtis made amazing rice again! We watched TV whilst we ate and then got dessert we had popcorn and Maltesers.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 280: Auckland – Too Tired For This

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis got up and ready as usual and then left the house.

The plan for today was that Curtis would go directly to a client from home in the morning and then go to the office.

Curtis got to the client at around 07:20 and was only there for a short time. He just had to connect the laptop he was delivering to their Wi-Fi and printer and show the user what to do then he was ready to leave.

Curtis drove to the office and started his day.

The day was a bit busier then it had been today, Which was nice, but Curtis felt that he pretty much did the same thing all day!

Both of us;

Once we were both home, Kim got changed and went to the gym. After the gym, we had our dinner which was leftovers from yesterday’s stir fry.

After dinner, Kim went out to see Tabitha for an hour or so and went to the chocolate shop for some dessert.

Once Kim got back home, we sat and watched some videos.

We have decided we are too tired for work and want to go back to traveling without working!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 279: Auckland – A McLaren?

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis had to contend with some traffic on the way to work but once he got there he made a coffee and got to it.

He had some admin to do for the morning as well as replying to emails.

At 09:00, Curtis left to go to a client to pickup a laptop. During the 6 minute drive, Curtis drove past the Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, Bentley & Aston Martin garages!

Curtis got to the client and had to wait briefly as the person he needed to speak to wasn’t quite there yet. Curtis eventually got the laptop and made his way back to the office.

On the way back, Curtis saw the McLaren showroom glass sliding doors open and a brand new McLaren came rolling out onto the road. He snapped a photo, of course.

Mclaren

Curtis got back to the office and for the rest of the day he setup the laptop he collected, but not without some challenges!

Curtis needs to drop that off tomorrow, which he is doing so in the morning.

Both of us;

We both eventually got home after having to contend with evening traffic too!

Once the traffic died down, we drove to Takapuna and got some items for dinner.

Kim made a sweet chilli pork stir fry which was great!

We chilled for the evening and got incredibly tired so decided it was time to sleep.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 278: Auckland – Day Trip to Thames

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis got up at the normal time, but his plans were a little different.

At 07:00, Curtis left home and drove for 1.5 hours down to a client in a town called Thames in the Coromandel Peninsula.

The drive down to Thames was very beautiful and the weather was very hot for most of the day in general.

Curtis got to the client and had to drive down a long gravel road to get there, which was interesting! At the client, Curtis sorted some printer, scanner and email issues and then left! He was there for just two hours before making the drive back.

The journey home was much busier as there were a lot of large lorries holding up traffic.

Curtis worked from home for the afternoon.

Both of us;

When Kim got home, she planned to go to the gym but just wasn’t feeling it, so instead we decided to go for a walk around Onepoto Domain, as we did the other evening.

Once we got back, we were trying to decide what to have for dinner. We went with a breakfast for dinner vibe, having scrambled eggs, beans, homemade chips and mushrooms.

We watched YouTube videos for the rest of the evening and then to bed!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale