Chandler's Overseas

After a year abroad we were both so excited about the return trip to Australia. Jen said a tearful goodbye to her work mates and colleagues at Charles Orbach on Thursday lunch (last day of work for a year!), and we both boarded the plane for Australia the same afternoon. The flight into Melbourne revealed the true extent of the drought, and the consequent bush fires surrounding Melbourne. There was a thick blanket of smoke for the entire descent into Tullamarine Airport. Having not visited country Victoria since our departure in 2007, we undertook a little road trip to our families. Firstly we visited Ballarat and Cave Hill Creek to spend time with Pete’s family. We were fortunate to be in Australia for Bella (Pete’s niece) 4 th birthday party at Cave Hill Creek. I think Bella, Charlie, Dan and Max all got a shock seeing us- don’t think they could actually remember us! The mandatory Chandler family shot! It was then onto Warrnambool to visit Jen’s parents for a relaxing 3 days. W...

Pete has recently been given a promotion to Procurement Lead for a job in Port Elizabeth (PE), so we will be moving there from 1 March 2009. We will be sad to leave all of our friends and the city lifestyle of Joburg behind, however we are also embracing the sea change! With a baby on the way soon, combined with living by the coast and the promotion for Pete it was too good an opportunity to refuse. Pete was previously working as a Contract Administrator for a different job in PE (the Port of Ngqura), so luckily he has already made good friends with some work colleagues who live there. PE, also known as the 'friendly city' or 'windy city', is located on the south-eastern coast in the Eastern Cape Province. With a latitude almost identical to Sydney, it boosts a sub tropical climate year-round. PE is primarily an industrial city housing the South African motor vehicle industry and one of the largest sea ports in Southern Africa. Having said that, just south of the CBD is...

Today we celebrated the Chinese New Year with what seemed to be the entire Chinese population of Gauteng! The celebrations were held at the huge Nan Hua Buddhist Temple which is around 1hrs drive NE of Joburg. The celebrations included fireworks, dragon dances and lots of food stalls. The traditional chinese food was delicious, especially the dumplings & lemon jelly drink.

Video of our trip!

On Saturday, 20 December we flew to Amman, capital city of Jordan, to commence our Middle East/Northern African holiday (2 weeks returning 3 Jan '08) . First impressions of Amman, the only major developed city in Jordan included: - hustling men wanted to 'help' with anything for a small fee; - stark landscape of limestone and sandstone rubble; - minimal vegetation except for the dust covered pine trees; and - bland white square apartment blocks. I guess this impression doesn't paint a pretty picture of the country, however we soon learnt that the people are incredibly friendly & helpful... and it was the middle of winter! Amman We saw the sites of Amman including a Roman theatre built in the 2nd Century AD and the Citadel which sits atop the highest of 20 hills in town. Of course we decided that it would be good for us to walk around the city to see the sites. Only later did we realise that Amman is built on 20 hills, so the walking involved a lot of up & down! ...

We have some exciting news.... Jen is 14 weeks pregnant! See below an ultrasound of the baby at 12 weeks. A benefit of the healthcare system here is that an ultrasound is performed monthly. You can therefore continually monitor and see your baby develop! 'hi-5' from Baby Chandler! We are both extremely excited and can't wait for June to arrive!

Pete is loving the digital SLR, especially due to the enhanced features that enable him to take photo's like the below... The moon from Wendywood , Johannesburg The highveld is a high plateau region of South Africa which experiences summer rainfall with substantial afternoon thunderstorms in November, December and January. The thunder and lightning never fails to impress, especially as the roar of the thunder cracks directly above you! During November to January the average monthly rainfall is 115mm, whilst this reduces to 5mm from June to August. Pete took the below photo's from our house during a typical thunderstorm using a long exposure setting on the camera. The impressive highveld lightning