Brazil - 9 days to go plus a bit of rugby

Preparations continue at Tobinators Towers - I fly out on the 11th to get into Manaus in time for the England press conference & open training on the 13th.Today I received a confirmation email from FIFA that I was approved for all the matches I have applied for. I had already seen this on the FIFA media portal several weeks ago, but it's nice to get an additional confirmation by email.I've been talking to a few other photographers from the Big Agencies over the last few weeks and exchanging schedule and logistics info. Most of these guys have crazy schedules as they are effectively shooting a match, getting on a plane, shooting another match, getting on a plane etc. Some surprise was expressed that I was only shooting 4 group games (3 England games plus Belgium v Russia), but the fact is that I'm on my own and focused on England, so I've also got the press conferences, open training and any other England media activity to cover. Plus I've got to sit on the beach and get a nice tan. Seriously though, our budget simply doesn't stretch to adding lots more flights and ludicrously priced hotels so I have to operate within some pretty strict constraints.From a comms perspective, things have progressed since my posting from Wembley a couple of weeks back. Focus Images resident uber-geek Waddo recommended a small battery-powered wireless router which I will be able to plug into my pitchside wired LAN to produce my own wifi hotspot. This will let me use multiple devices from a single LAN connection which is a GOOD THING.Needless to say I bought the wrong thing, and a TP-Link USB-powered device popped through the door the other day. It's very small - just a bit bigger than a matchbox. Unfortunately it's not battery powered. It needs 5V from a USB connection. However, it works really well. I used it at Twickenham over the last two days - plugged into a LAN point in the photographers' room I got my own wifi hotspot powerered over USB from my laptop which was great when the other snappers used up all the wifi capacity and mine was going full throttle.It's worth noting that my WR-702N came without the hotspot SSID or password printed on the label making connecting to it a bit tricky However, once I figured out I just had to connect it by LAN cable to my laptop and go to 198.168.0.1 and log in with the provided admin username and password and then I could set up the SSID and password as I wanted. It's a cute bit of kit, with no switches - you just plug it into USB power and plug the cable in and that's it.Seeing as I think I'll need battery power (though pitchside spots should have a power point) just in case, I then ordered what I should have bought in the first place - the TP-LINK ML3040. This is slightly larger, and has a manual on-off switch and another switch to select which mode it is operating in. Nicely made with several indicator lights for activity, charge status etc.I should be able to plug this into the LAN point, turn it on, and tuck it out of the rain to do its thing.This would be a very cool piece of kit for Chelsea, where there is wired LAN access but it's behind the photographers across the walkway meaning a cable connection is both a trip hazard and a recipe for your laptop being launched off your knee as someone tangles with the cable.

Onto rugby. I had a busy weekend with the Aviva Premiership final between Northampton Saints and Saracens. I was there with fellow Focus Images shooter Andy Kearns, who was also shooting for the Northampton newspapers. Seems he got the right team this year!It was a cracking game. You can see our pictures on the Focus Images site here. For those who don't know, it went to extra time, 10 mins each way after Saracens missed a late conversion and had a try disallowed for a forward pass. The atmosphere was really sensational, and I was sitting in front of a mass of Northampton supporters. The noise was incredible, and both teams were really going for it. It was a brutal match with plenty of injuries, but Northampton won it right at the end of extra time with a messy, chaotic pile up under which Waller had managed to get the ball on the line, unfortunately out of shot of yours truly.I knew that the England were going to pick the remaining members of the squad for the New Zealand tour from this game and Sunday's game against the Barbarians, so I was looking particularly for stock shots of the likely selections. Hartley, Wood and Ashton are amongst those on the plane, nursing their hangovers no doubt.Yesterday saw me back at Twickenham again for an England XV match against the Barbarians. A lower key affair, in conjunction with the Bill Beaumont cup final, this was an England team of younger players and those who were hoping for one of the last slots on the New Zealand tour. It was a curious game. Compared to the previous day's phenomenal atmospher and pulsating gameplay, this was a game interrupted by so many stoppages I am sure I had at least one period of 15 minutes where I didn't take a single photograph. The action when it came was generally at the wrong end of the pitch or not very photogenic. However, one does the best one can in the available circumstances.Apparently the Barbarians won. Happily I had plenty of time during the game to caption and edit pictures, but for some reason the stadium wifi was very poor so it was a struggle getting any out until I got my phone running on O2's 4G network, at which point things improved considerably.At least it was warm & sunny.Oh, and Lancashire beat Cornwall to take the Bill Beaumont trophy.