Two Days To Departure

This first post is a boring test post and a way to answer a question I've been asked a couple of times: how do you pack for almost three months away to destinations as diverse as Indonesia, Istanbul and Ireland? The short answer is "carefully".
The long answer is below in a photo:

That is everything I am taking. Everything. Ok, almost. The only exceptions are the sleeping bag I'll need in Botswana and Namibia, the suit I'll buy in London so that they'll let me into the restaurants on the Queen Mary, the stack of clean new US dollars I'll need in Zimbabwe (stay tuned...) and the credit card I'll need everywhere else.

Thanks to the miracle of the modern compression bag - basically a fancy zip-lock - all of the above, except what I'm wearing at any given point, fits into this:

The backpack is less than half the allowed carry-on size. But it has the weight density of a small neutron star and if I end up buying anything I'll have to bribe the kids to carry it for me...