Oh Christmas Tree

Can anyone tell me what the name of this tree is? This is known as the Christmas Tree to the locals. The reason being that it blooms (yellow like this) around Christmas time. It's certainly quite different than the Christmas tree we are accustomed to. (My first thought was, "this tree is no good for hanging ornaments")

The story goes that when an Australian Missionary first came to the area in the early 1900s , he brought over these seeds as a little piece of home in a foreign land. The church among the minority people in this area grew over the years (as did the trees he planted). Now the tree serves as a memorial to God's faithfulness to the people in the area and whenever they build a new church building, they plant these trees around it.

One of These Thing is Not Like the Others...

"One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?"

Remember that song from Sesame Street? Well, my good buddy from College, Tom, came with me on my latest adventure to Asia. We were invited to attend this church service out in the country side. Can you pick him out of the crowd?















(if you are having trouble with this, try sharpening your skills by watching some old Sesame Street episodes. Or better yet, remember those old issues of Highlight magazine, where you pick out what's different between the picture on the front cover and the picture in the back? There is always the beloved "Where's Waldo" books as well...)

Flying Blues (Purple)

For those of you PC folks (like me in my former life as a CS major and software developer) who abhor the blue screen of death, this here is the frequent flyer's version, the purple screen.

Yesterday afternoon, I walked on the jetway in the pleasant, sunny 70F degrees of Orlando only to be greeted a few hours later by the 28F degrees and heavy snowfall of Rhode Island. In fact, the landing came as quite a surprise, because all I could see was pure whiteness and thought we were still descending through the clouds.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Being on the last plane to land on time, we barely escaped the wrath of the purple screen. (Though getting home in the snow storm was another story*.)

*Involving deciphering the morbid sounding public transit known as RIPTA, sitting in stop-n-go snow traffic, running through the snow with my luggage, ... etc.