Azalea.

My Kai aka  adopted sister Ah King posted a photo of my Kai Ma aka adopted mum with short Azaleas in Rotorua in New Zealand. Tall or short, they are wonderful flowers. This concept of KAI is a term of endearment, I did not physically go and live with her and be her daughter.


I went back to this morning this post below in 2009 before I joined memes. I remember doing this post and know exactly where I took the above photo. At a private house in Sandringham Road. I didn't take any more of the Azaleas because I couldn't find another  bush as good as this.

Because of the Chinese innate inability to say R, when ever the news of Azaria's death came up, I think of this flower.  I think you all have heard of Fly Lice. Some times, I catch myself sounding R instead of L and vice versa, and I am an ESOL teacher. An old Chinese male student in his 70s, says that the Chinese can't roll our tongue. He overcome this problem by saying RRRRRRR when he brushes his teeth.


Azaria's case has always intrigued me. I wasn't a mum then, I held the conviction that mums don't kill their babies. We had long heated debates at work.

On 19 August 1980 a nine-week-old girl named Azaria Chamberlain was allegedly captured by a dingo near the Uluru and killed.  Now, when I see of the flower Azalea, I think of her mum, a bereaved mum who took so long and so much to clear her name.

On 15 September 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned all convictions against Lindy and Michael Chamberlain
yielded virtually identical results.

Two years after they were exonerated, the Chamberlains were awarded A$1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment, a sum that covered only approximately one quarter of their legal expenses
24 Feb 2012 – A PACKED courtroom in Darwin has heard hundreds of people have been injured by dingoes in Australia and one of the wild dogs probably killed Azaria.

Azaria explained the Chamberlians came from the Hebrews, it means helped by God, not the flower Azalea.

http://annkschin.blogspot.co.nz/2009/10/good-friends-are-like-azaleas.html

Azaleas have many stems. At the end of each stem, grows a flower. During the flowering season they are a solid mass of colour. Azaleas are recognised by these flowers blooming all at once, in a showy display for a month or two in spring.

When I lived in Singapore for sixteen years, I had a group of girlfriends who are like sisters to me. In deed, together, we are like stems of an Azalea plant. We flower at the end of each stem. We are bunched together closely that we produced a mass of wonderful blooms. As a bloom inevitably left us for their home country, we nurtured another bloom.

We were not beautiful physically, but that is not important, we had beautiful hearts. Together we used our hands and brains and raised money for the deaf children in Kenya, and to separate a pair of Siamese Twins.

When I left Singapore three years ago, friends asked if I would miss Singapore. I sincerely tell them, it is not the place I would miss, it is the people especially these group of sisters. I went for a visit this July, and they made me feel as though I had never left.

Today, they sent me a card to mark a special occasion. On the card, there are two new blooms. I am glad that Azalea bush is continually growing.

http://blueberrycraftandhobbytime.blogspot.com/p/join-my-photo-challenge-flowers-on.html




http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.co.nz/p/about-todays-flowers.html