Brazil: 1 day to go

Thanks to everyone for all the positive messages in response to yesterday's post. They are big morale boosters so keep them coming. I fly tomorrow so today is my last chance to complete my preparations.By the way, it's worth checking out Matthew Ashton's blog. He's down in Brazil already for his agency AMA. It was Matthew's bloggery of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa that inspired me to set Brazil 2014 as my main target. He always posts some pithy insights into the confusing madness of it all.Someone asked how much my Peli 1510 carry on weighs, so I dug out the bathroom scales and it's happily sitting at 20kg which is just 4x the allowable 5kg. I've been doing some exercises to train my upper body to make the "lift into the luggage bin" look like I'm just popping a little briefcase up there. In reality I suspect I'll pull most of my back muscles.A lot of the weight is the 400mm which is built like a tank, but I can't do without it so it has to go in carry-on. Following Waddo's advice I've also got myself a photographer's vest made by Domke (I just can't post the picture up as it looks so naff) which has a million pockets that will contain my smaller cameras, flash etc. That will leave one hard Samsonite case to go in the hold with various adapters, cables, monopod and some other bits, plus clothes and toiletries. I thought about taking a soft rollerbag but, though it's a bit more clumsy you can't beat a good Samsonite case.So much for the packing. I've also spent time putting the squad lists together for the teams in the matches that I know I'll be covering. This is no different to any other match, and it's nice to have them all done and numbered well ahead of time.It's annoying reading the papers today that I'm not already out there. The key shots of the England training base are already captured and published, including the all-too-obvious one from the top of Sugarloaf, but I'll be doing that anyway as it's too good an opportunity to pass up. It's patently obvious that there's going to be pretty much blanket coverage of everything that the England squad do so I'm going to be extremely busy while they remain in the tournament. The key thing for me will be to try and get something different - just getting the same shots as all the main press pack won't cut it so I'll have my thinking hat on.Online check in is done. I'm flying TAM which will be a new experience for me. With no seat-side power I'm hoping that my tablet lasts long enough to get through at least 6 episodes of Breaking Bad. I've got Vikings season 1-3 on there as well just in case. I just need to work out whether to hire a care in Manaus or not. I think it will be quite a good plan and give me a lot more flexibility to get some interesting pictures, get out to the England team hotel etc etc. I'll figure that one out on the plane. I get into Manaus at 4pm local time so there should be time to get some shots taken and wired that day, as England fly into Manaus on Thursday as well.