Have towel, will travel

If I take H2G2 (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) as my guide, I'm ready for my trip.

"If with trolley or backpack I can transport my baggage, I will. I have my towel!" (No apologies to the "Lord of the Rings" FotR movie script - lines like that practically beg to be parodied!)

As I collect the clothes, shoes, cosmetics and sundry articles that I must take with me, I am trying to plan well so as to get everything into as small a space as possible while weighing as little as possible. I will have a bit more leeway on the first leg of the journey, which is good, as I'm taking some presents along for family and friends. But by the time I head for New Zealand and Australia, I need to have cut down to 20 kilos - that's not much!

For that reason, my towel is new - though I normally prefer 100% cotton, this one has some modern high-tech fiber content so that it will be lighter and thinner, drying more quickly while still absorbing well. I have been shopping for small sizes of cosmetics to keep volume and weight down some more.

I am planning to dress in basic black and blue (no - I don't mean bruises, silly!) denim - wearing one pair of jeans and packing another, with only one pair of dressy black pants and a thin skirt or two in case I need something like that. Layering is the secret for the rest of my clothes - T-shirts long and short-sleeved, one wool sweater for cool evenings and/or days, and only very basic jewelry (nothing terribly valuable or irreplaceable!) that gets worn constantly to avoid the danger of losing any of it. My double-layered jacket is black and will serve well in all kinds of weather conditions.

I plan to pre-pack and weigh everything several days before I leave to see how I'm doing. I hope I can keep at least some hand luggage as a carry-on; who knows what safety precautions will be in effect next week. I would like to keep my journal and camera with me - I'm not yet sure if I want to take along something to read. What do I do with a book after it's done - drag it with me for the rest of the trip?! I may end up sending myself packages to my home address along the way, especially if I buy more fabric than I can carry...