Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 221: Vancouver, BC – Early Morning Walk

Early Morning Walk

We were up at 07:00 and right out for our morning walk.

Kim had to start work early today, so we made sure we had plenty of time to walk and then get working.

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a productive morning, which was really good and made it go fast!

He had his daily team meeting and then right after had a project meeting for an hour.

After lunch, Curtis had another project meeting for an hour and then then afternoon was pretty quiet.

He did get a message around 16:00 asking for some help, so he jumped on a Zoom call and helped the person out, which was really good.

Kim’s Day

Kim has set up a social call where everyone from all 3 offices can join in so she set that up and facilitated it. It went so well! Everyone relaxed and had a great catch up. Just after this Kim joined the company wide meeting.

She spent most of her morning saving invoices and sorting out communications for things. She invites some people to a progress tracker that she made for people to pick a goal and support each other with it over the coming weeks.

After lunch Kim worked on and completed her quiz! She also had a call with her colleague where she was given a mini project! So thats great!

At the end of the day Kim spent some time trying to work out a charge that had been put on a credit card. she had to reach out to a hotel, and then to people within the office! By the end of it all, the charge was fair, so thats great!

Chilled Evening

We did get some chores done, cleaning down the countertops and getting some vacuuming done.

We had a day off from working out as our app said to do so, so we just had leftovers for dinner instead and watched TV.


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 214: Vancouver, BC – Quarantine Cheese Night!

Curtis’ Day

Curtis’ morning was pretty busy, just with tickets, really. He did have to review a document, though, which he did for about 30-45 minutes.

Curtis answered a lot of questions today, too.

He got quite a lot done and then had lunch with Kim around 12:30.

After this, he had meeting from 13:00-15:00 with his team to discuss projects, priorities and all the projects which have changed as everyone has to work from home at the moment.

Curtis had a pretty slow afternoon, but did things where he could.

Kim’s Day

Kim spent a lot of her morning working on plans for remote social activities. The main thing she worked on was a rough draft for schedule for events and drew up invites too!

Kim then sat a mock test for her exam. It wasn’t great, but is shows the areas Kim needs to work on. Its not like she isn’t short on time to study right now!

After the mock Kim hopped on a social call with one of the other offices while they played games! It was nice to have a chat with some people that she wouldn’t usually and to just have a little chatter in the background while she worked on a few other things.

After the call Kim worked on a plan for an online quiz and she set up the draft invites in meeting requests ready to be sent out. She also saved the last few invoices and sent an email out chasing a few missing ones

Quarantine Cheese Night

We decided to have a bit of a cheese night, despite the quarantine!

But first, it was cleaning time.

We got the apartment cleaned from top to bottom, which felt really good.

After that, we went for a walk just to get outside. The weather was amazing but there were far too many people out.

We got back from our walk and had our cheese whilst watching some YouTube videos.

After that, we watched Ready Player One which is an amazing film, we thought!

We watched a little more TV and then went to bed.


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 164: Vancouver, BC – Brunch & Planning With Friends

Last Night’s Hockey

Curtis’ hockey game went well, at least for him! He got 1 goal and 1 assist, with the game ending 5-5! There was a shootout, but neither team won so it ended a tie.

Appointment

We went out for an appointment in Gastown which was at 11:00.

We finished pretty quickly with the appointment and then went out for brunch!

Brunch

We found a place called Catch 122 Cafe Bistro which we had seen looks really great!

Curtis had a full breakfast which was actually really great and the coffee was good too!

Kim had mushroom toast which wasn’t that great, and we had to wait 40 minutes outside to get a table!

Planning With Friends

We got home and Kim went to the shop quickly and then when she got home we chatted with Danielle and Josh to plan some more of their trip over here!

We had a nice long chat with them and then the rest of the night we watched some TV, ate some sweet chilli potato wedges.

We had some whiskey and just chilled for the evening.

A great evening all around.


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 134: Vancouver, BC – Boxing day 2019

Crepes

Kim went out to feed the cats in the morning and when she got back, she made crepes for breakfast!

These were filled with Kinder Bueno minis and we had strawberries on top! Delicious.

Nothingness.

We did nothing for most of the day again, which was perfect, though we did go out for a coffee.

Luckily, we even went during happy hour at Starbucks which meant we got buy one get one free!

We then went on to the shop to get a couple of things and then back home.

KitKat Cabin

We made a cabin out of KitKats, which was something Kim had bought. It was pretty fun, but a little easy!

Dinner

We watched some TV and then had dinner!

We had leftovers from yesterday which were still as delicious as they were then.

We watched The Good Place for a while and got ready for work tomorrow.

We tried one of the cocktail mixes with some Jameson whiskey, which was a Manhattan, which is cherry flavoured. It was actually quite nice!

It’s weird to be going back on a Friday, but it also means it’s basically the weekend again!


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 133: Vancouver, BC – Christmas Day 2019

The Breakfast

Kim went out at 06:00 to go and feed the cats, but came back and went back to bed.

We had the breakfast that Curtis’ family used to have at Christmas, which is pastries and strawberries!

Curtis had some coffee and that was the breakfast done!

The Families

We spoke with Kim’s family after breakfast, which was really nice! Kim opened her presents from her sister, which were some thermals and some items from Lush! Curtis got a thermos, which is orange, his favourite colour!

We then spoke with Curtis’ family and it was really nice as we haven’t spoken to them in a long while.

The Gavin & Stacey

We watched Gavin & Stacey’s Christmas special and it was excellent…exactly what we wanted to be and it’s setup to have more episodes, which we REALLY want!

Whilst we watched this, we had some cheese as a snack.

The Presents

We opened the rest of our presents from each other after watching the TV show.

Curtis got some whiskey and some cocktail mixes, which are things Curtis loves! He also got a hat and a jumper, but he did know of these before Christmas.

Kim got a small LED alarm clock for the bedroom as Kim wanted one that wasn’t too light but was bright enough to see the time at night.

Kim got a new handbag and purse, but she knew about these. She also got a cheese board with a built in utensils draw with the cheese knives in! All of it is made of bamboo, too.

The Dinner

We eventually made dinner, which didn’t take that long.

It was excellent though! Kim got some pigs in blankets brought over from England by someone at work and we had those with chicken, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, stuffing and vegetables.

After our terrific meal, we watched some TV and then watched some shows on Netflix.

We plan to do more of the same tomorrow and the rest of this evening!


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – day 139: Vancouver, BC – Tiny Patisserie

Morning Workout

We were up around 09:00 and Kim decided she wanted to go and do some exercise, so headed down to the studio for 10:00.

Whilst she was there, Curtis had some breakfast, a coffee and played some games.

A Tiny Patisserie

When Kim got back, we were still hungry for some food, so we walked for about 20 minutes to get to a patisserie which had great ratings.

The patisserie was called L’atelier Patisserie and it was beautiful! Just 4 tables in total (two outside and two inside) and it was weirdly in an industrial estate.

It was clearly a busy place as it had run out of several items by the time we got there, but there was still enough for us to have.

We were very excited to have a croissant, and they didn’t disappoint!

Kim had a double chocolate croissant a Curtis had a standard, plain, one.

The croissants were incredible! flaky, yet buttery!

The coffees weren’t great, but tasty enough!


L’atelier Patisserie | Vancouver, BC

Our rating:- 8.25/10


We left here and walked home, via a shop to get a couple of things.

Hockey

When we got home, we watched a couple of things together and then Curtis watched hockey whilst Kim watched Queer Eye.

Galaxy Buds

Curtis bought Kim Galaxy Buds for her birthday but gave them to her today as they as useful to have for training and exercise!

Suits & Peaky Blinders

We tried some of the new whisky we have and are very much in favour!

We watched Suits and Peaky Blinders whilst we drank this.


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 132: Vancouver, BC – Whiskey Flights & Fancy French Meal!

Shopping & Coffee

As with every weekend, we did some shopping and grabbed a coffee before anything else!

We had breakfast, got ready and then went out to get something from London Drugs. Then, after that, we went to Homesense to find some perfect whiskey glasses to have for home, which we did! We had to queue for a while but eventually got them purchased and then went to Starbucks to get a coffee.

We had our coffee in Starbucks for a bit, but then went back home so others could sit down. The weather was bad, so coffee shops were busy!

We got back home and Kim took her shoes to the cobbler to get the. Heals re done. Whilst out, she saw a few dogs, one of which was a collie mixed with a German shepherd which was very cute! She then had a hug with a kitten before going back to pickup her shoes.

Whiskey Flights!

Once Kim got back, we started getting ready to go out.

We took the train down to the city and walked for 10 minutes up to a pub which has a whiskey bar out back!

We got in and got our flights of whiskey. Kim went for the Scottish, where as Curtis went for the recommended one from the barman which was the cherry aged whiskeys.

Along with our whiskey, we had a meat and cheese board, which was phenominal!


Shebeen Bar | Vancouver, BC

Our Rating:- 10/10


We had some great chats with the bar staff but then had to leave so we could make it to our dinner reservation, but we had a Jameson Mule before we left!

Fancy French Meal

Kim booked in a French meal, which we were very excited for! We each got a glass of wine and then some free bread, just before our mains arrived!


Jules Bistro | Vancouver, BC

Our Rating:- 9/10


Kim got a tenderloin steak with scallion potatoes as well and ratatouille, and Curtis had a terrific rack of lamb which came with potatoes and corn.

For dessert, Kim had a chocolate & caramel pudding and Curtis had a cappucino, which was the best he has had in a while!

We finished our food, paid up and walked back home.

Once we got back home, a little tipsy, we got some admin done and then watched the latest Suits episode before going to sleep.


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 98: Vancouver, BC – All The Free Food!

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a busy day ahead of him! He started the day doing a few tickets from other days as well as a couple of new ones that came in.

Once those were done, he had to order some IT equipment and then continued on imaging an old laptop for reuse.

Curtis finished the laptop and then moved on to something a bit more challenging, once he was done with lunch.

Curtis was trying to get a virtual machine to run on a server which people could all remote in to and use whenever they needed. It took a while to figure out, but he managed to realise that the hard drive was only recognisable on mac and once he plugged it in, the file was in the incorrect format.

Curtis had to re import the file into a free virtual machine manager and re export it as a different file type. This took over an hour to do and whilst he was doing this, he got a colleague to setup a server to put it on, which he will do on Monday.

Curtis went and had some drinks with his colleagues and even had a little bit of whiskey!

Curtis walked home alone as Kim was still at work, but once he got home he went on the xbox and had a long chat with his friend Shane (who was his best man) who he hasn’t spoken to in while.

It was amazing for them to catch up!

Kim’s Day

Kim got in before 9 to ensure that the boardroom was ready for the scout to come in and do their checks. When they came in, Kim showed them upstairs and left him to it.

She realised that she forgot her breakfast, so nipped across the road to the supermarket to grab a chocolate croissant. It was so tasty and just what Kim wanted!

After Kim ate her breakfast, she sorted out some of the fruit for the sangria. She set up 2 jugs with some of the frozen fruit to allow for it to soak up some of the alcohol for the duration of the day.

After this Kim got prepared for her meeting this morning in regards to her project and checked on the scout to make sure he was all set.

In the meeting Kim learned that the project was at a different phase than she was initatly led to believe it was at. Kim thought her role was to encourage other teams to complete certain tasks whereas her role at the moment is to ensure that her department is up to date and can then be used as a model for other departments. She was able to realign her goals and and efforts to reflect what is actually needed now. It was a very successful and useful meeting.

Just after the meeting the catering for another meeting arrived. Kim sorted it all out and let then know that the food was waiting in the meeting room and went back to going through some project stuff. A few minutes later someone came back to Kim with a spare burrito as someone had ordered one and not come to the meeting! What a win!

Kim decided to take her lunch then and relax and enjoy a free crispy chicken burrito. It was a good lunch!

When she finished her lunch Kim continued working with her new information on the project. She then popped out to pick up some cider and wine for the Friday afternoon drinks and pick up the mail.

Kim then organised with the film crew and the building managers how the filming would work logistically.

It was then Kim’s favourite time of week where she got to make sangria and set up all of the drinks! Kim even made a virgin sangria too! She then finished an email, had a chat with a colleague and then joined everyone until 6pm for drinks. It was really easy going and fun!

Pizza & Hidden Figures

We ate a frozen pizza for dinner as it was late and we are lazy!

We watched a couple of YouTube videos and then watched the film Hidden Figures which was a pretty good film!


Hidden Figures

Rating:- 8/10


We finished the night by starting to watch a Swedish show called Eagles.


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 50: Vancouver, BC – Dragon Boat Festival 🐉

Bagels

We woke up and had a nice relaxed morning.

We had cinnamon raisin bagels for breakfast, covered in butter, which were delicious.

We relaxed and then headed out to the shops.

Brief Shop

We had a few more things to get, mostly a bread knife which we noticed we needed this morning!

We got some items and then came home.

Dragon Boat Festival

There is the Dragon Boat Festival happening right by our apartment this weekend, so we thought we would check it out.We went to watch a race first, which we did from a small island near where we live.

We walked further down and watched the next race and then went towards all of the festivities which were happening by the science centre.

These festivities were not that interesting, but there was a lot of free stuff, including free mcdonalds coffee, but when we got in the queue they ran out of milk, so we didn’t get one.

We walked around some more and checked out what all the fuss was about but then we wanted a coffee so found a nearby bakery to grab one from.

We got our coffee and came home, where we just relaxed, watched some TV and ate quesadillas for dinner, which Kim made!


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 43: Vancouver, BC – Kitsilano

Walk To Kits

We woke up and had a pains au chocolat each and some strawberries.

We ate this and then spoke with Kim’s family briefly as they were at Kim’s uncle’s wedding.

We then sat down to speak with Curtis’ family, but missed them so instead we left the house and walked to Kitsilano!

Kitsilano is a very trendy, hippie and beautiful neighbourhood in Vancouver. It took us roughly 45 minutes to walk from our home across to ‘Kits’.

The weather was beautiful, with the sun beating down on us.

The majority of the walk was along the seawall, so we got to see a lot of boats and we even walked through Granville island.

Coffee In Kits

We wanted to grab a coffee so we found a coffee shop called Bean Around The World. We believe this is a chain but it smelled delicious when we walked in and it was pretty well priced as well.

Curtis got a cappucino and Kim got a caramel macchiato. Both of our drinks were delicious!


Bean Around The World | Vancouver,BC

Rating:- 9/10


Looking For Food

We thought we would look around for something to eat, so we went to the main area in Kitsilano to get some lunch.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find anything, so we settled for a wrap and KitKat from Whole Foods instead!

Kitsilano Beach

We walked to the beach which has mountain views and lots of volleyball courts! We sat and ate our lunch and then began the walk home by the side of the beach.

We walked all the way home from there which took about another 45 minutes and we were exhausted!

Shopping

We got back home and relaxed for a bit as our feet hurt.

We then went out to do our shop for the week and didn’t really spend that much!

We came back and Kim made a really good dinner which was marinated pork with noodles and vegetables.

We finished up with dinner and watched the first episode of the new season of Black Mirror, followed by some Lucifer, as well as some ice cream and then whiskey!


This Time Last Year!


Mr & Mrs Hale