Hello !!

Long time since the last Blog entry, which probably has been appreciated by some and hopefully missed by others?? With a hectic four day schedule to end this week, it gave me the perfect reason to get back on the Blog writing.

It all started with a League Cup (soccer) game at Stamford Bridge - between Chelsea and Manchester United. But it wasn't the game that I was there to capture, the client whom I worked for came to me asking for pictures of the half-time interactive game. But to put it mildly, the British mentality at soccer games is not geared towards this, where as the pictures/videos of these events in the Continental Europe, Asia, America.. are brilliant to watch. The fans at Wednesday nights game were more bemused and shouted swear words. Still - the images worked out fine for the client, as they showed the full stadium and the game rolling on the screens (just as long as we don't zoom in on the angry faces of the beer-filled fans :-) ). Game itself (apparently) was a thriller, although looking at the faces of photographers when Chelsea scored with the last kick of the game.. we all felt rather annoyed that there was going to be an extra 45 minutes spent taking pictures.

After the game, my journey took me to EuroTunnel - or firstly a hotel near-by and a short night of sleep before heading to Belgium to catch up with one Finnish International Basketballer, and then to go and photograph another playing in the Women's EuroCup. The Belgian part of the week ended up being the most rewarding - firstly a nice dinner in a restaurant in Mechelen and then the 'Hunt for Arena'. Now, a Sat-Nav and Google search can be your best friends at times, but trying to find the Arena in S-K-W was a challenge. Firstly we ended driving the wrong way, as I listened to my traveling companions stories.. instead of following the Sat-Nav. When we arrived to the first address we thought the Arena would be at... well, there we were sitting by the dark road in the middle of nowhere.  No panic - let's try again.. new address plotted in.. and no luck, this time the 'road' was a pedestrian path. Then we drove to the center of the town and looked at the Tourist Map, to find out that the small city had FIVE streets with the SAME NAME!! Not that helps us, we know that the street name is correct, but which one is it??

Imagine yourself having a conversation with someone.. 'So, where do you live?' - 'I live on Bean Street in XXX' - 'Oh, which one of the Bean Streets?'

Luckily - and yes, with LUCK! - we found the Arena .. and by the sounds of it we were not the only ones having trouble finding the place :-)

There is something about talking to people who understand/speak the same language as you *hehe* - I can't remember when I've last said so many toilet humor jokes in one evening, but what do you expect when the media table is marked as "Pers".. so when you go there.. you are going to the 'Perse'.. and FINALLY I found a person who realized how funny of a place name Pershore is.. it is about as funny as you can get ;-) Or what do you say Meral??

Then it was game time - well, first bit of waiting around. The game was a nice and close game, and nice for us that the Finnish players (Tiina Sten) team won the game. It made the post game interview go.. smoothly?? And for once I didn't have to ask the questions, this was left to the fellow Finnish player, Meral Bedretdin. Interview went well, although most questions seemed to start with the word 'Tota' ;-)

Less eventful trip back to the Hotel, via Brussels to drop of the interviewer.. hopefully get to use her talents in two weeks when I have another trip to Belgium!

Following morning I managed to get about 30 minutes of walking in Mechelen before starting to drive back to the Channel Tunnel. Friday afternoon traffic jam in Gent - and missed the scheduled train, luckily got placed on the next one. Then a drive to London and to video a BBL basketball game for the League and Sky Sports.. The normal evening of BBL basketball - and game stayed close until the second half. Drive home.. arrive at 1.30am, sleep?? NO!! Time to edit all the video into two five minute Highlight clips and upload them online. Finished work at 3.30am.... and still left one of the videos to upload at that time!

Couple of hours of sleep - and off to Championship football match Birmingham vs Ipswich, and as each week goes by you can feel the winter kicking in. Couple of layers of clothes, cold fingers... yes, this is football in Britain. Game once again would have helped either as a cure for insomnia or as an alternative to watching paint dry. But - few decent pictures of the goal scorer (not scoring as that was at the other end), of the new manager of Ipswich.. pretty much what you needed from the game.

So there - a hectic 68 hours spent working, driving distance of around 1000 miles (1600 KM), 210 minutes of soccer, 80 minutes of basketball... hours spent editing images, editing videos, uploading stuff online. Just another normal week in the life of a Sports Photographer - or at least in my life...

Thanks for all the people whom I talked to and met over the last few days... it always makes it easier to travel and attend games when you meet nice people to share them with.