Blade Edge

Okay first of all I don’t know if I’m going to be blogging every day. I might, I might not. We’ll see. Regardless I will be re-capping everything since the last time I blogged.

So since we are waiting for some product to arrive (customs is a bitch) today starting at 7:30am we all lent a hand over at the Danshui River site, which is the program that will be playing earlier in the night for the Floral Expo. This is a huge site that racetracks around the river and today was spent out in the field hanging panels on racks and running wire here and there that will later be used to tie in the actual fireworks. To give you an idea of the scope, here are two photos:

The first one was taken at the staging area, where the large tent is set up that houses all the firing equipment. You can see the floral expo on the left. The second was taken at the far end of the river bend you see in the first photo looking back to the staging area and the bridge it is under. This entire distance contains fireworks spaced at intervals. It’s a long walk but we have 2 bicycles and a small flatbed trucks that makes rounds to ferry people where they need to go. But the riverside isn’t the whole program. Check out the satellite view – we’ll be crossing the river using small barges and then there will be trucks lined up along Highway 1 and the bridge to form a complete oval loop that will be shooting up fireworks like they are on a racetrack.

We had lunch at the staging tent, white rice with egg and pork, assorted vegetables and other stuff I didn’t know – some tasty some not 🙂 The weather was great today, partly cloudy with the temperature somewhere in the high 50’s/low 60’s. Windy – when the sun went behind clouds and the wind was blowing you chilled out quick. But we were all moving around enough to stay warm. Besides hanging panels and running wire I also spent some time on the bicycle running some courier errands between the various people on the field and the staging area. One time pedaling back the flatbed pulled past me and I grabbed on to the side railing and let it pull me along – I was Marty McFly – but on a bicycle instead of a skateboard. I also took the measuring wheel up onto the bridge with another pyrotech and we measured out distances to place racks for later on in the setup process. Here’s a shot from the bridge:

We wrapped up and headed back to the hotel at 5 – although some stayed behind to sort the first shipment of product that finally arrived around that time. Me? I’m beat. All the walking/biking – and my fingers are feeling a little raw from stripping and twisting and running all that wire. I’ve got some work to do on the computer and then it’s time to lie down and pass out – another early start to the day tomorrow.

In case you’re wondering about Taipei 101 – there she is above, taken from the staging tent under the bridge. That’s the second part of the show, happening at midnight on New Years. In a few more days I’ll be up on the terraces getting things set up. Can’t wait!