A Birthday Present Not Too Late

This is something which came totally out of my expectations. I never thought that I would be getting any birthday present anymore, as my birthday was more than four months ago. However, when I stepped into my room, I saw something placed on top of my laptop cooler and when I took a closer look at them, this is what I saw.

See how systematic she placed my gifts.

My birthday gift, from my youngest sister and she is just 11 years old. They consist of one huge blue card with a birthday wish and some messages written on it, one cute little handmade bookmark, and a gift wrapped in pink paper.

"HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY KOKO"

Be Happy always, Don't always sad. Ooo u can khawin d hor. Haha just tipu. I hope your relationship wit mg can ma hor... This card is my very special to u k. Please keep it nicely k... I wanted to give a penanda buku pun... But later oni I do k... Thats all... Tata for now and "HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY" agin.

Haha, so damn cute can.

I was smiling when I saw what is written on the bookmark. It came just at the exact time when the two of us have not been on a good terms for the past few days. Somehow, that short little message just gave me that extra strength and I know we will go through this. Finally, it will be a gift she got for me when she went for her school trip earlier this year to Kedah and I suppose she got this at the Paddy Museum.

How some simple gifts managed to make my day.

Nagaoka Fireworks Festival 2008 - Part 2

This will be the second installment of Nagaoka Fireworks Festival this year. Each year, it is held for two straight nights and this time, I borrowed a tripod from the Chikyu Lab and brought it along with me that night, hoping to get better shots. Despite so, I reckon my fireworks pictures look better when I took it without a tripod on the first night. I have no idea why is that so, but anyway these are some better shots I got on the second night.

Phoenix - the finale.

The crowd there didn't seem to get any lesser compared to the night before, and since I was there alone and would only need a small area for myself, I went to there just a couple of hours before the show began. However, I opted for something different this time. I picked a different spot, opposite of the river where I sat on the first night, just to get a different experience from a different location. Certainly there were some difference; one being the sharpness and the clarity I managed to capture when I was using a tripod. Another one would be during the Niagara Falls fireworks from the Choseibashi Bridge, as I managed to see the whole line of colourful flames flowing down from the bridge much clearer this time.

Niagara Falls.

Every explosions and burst of fire lit up the sky, which was greeted with cheers from the people there. They burst into applause whenever flares sizzled and exploded into bouquets of fire which lit up the Shinano River in sudden flashes of red, green, yellow, and blue. It was almost the perfect romantic scene for someone to propose to their loved ones.

Okay, as usual it will be pictures' time.

#1 Niagara Falls from Oteohashi Bridge.

#2 Two huge fireworks also from the same bridge.

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Personally, I feel that the pictures above are just below average. The shots I had the night before were better, but on the other hand, I reckon the video on the second night are much more interesting. Here are a couple of videos which I have compiled together. The first one has Hello Kitty fireworks towards the ending part of the video. Take a look at it.

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People were rushing home after the show ended. Hence, it was a total havoc throughout the road leading to the train station. Sea of people was crowding the whole stretch of several kilometers long road, while the police tried hard to control the traffic. It is never an easy task to manage such a huge number of people at one time; there were easily more than a few hundreds of thousands of people there that night. As for me, I didn't have to follow the flow of people all the way to the station. Instead, I just had to walk a few hundred meters to the spot I placed my bike earlier that evening and cycle all the way back to my college's hostel.

It will most probably be my last time watching the fireworks festival in Nagaoka next year.