Can you ever pack too early?

The answer is yes, you can. You could choose to pack a year before going somewhere, and that would be ridiculous. And packing two weeks before a big trip abroad would be as much a recipe for disaster (and forgotten necessities) as packing two hours prior to departure. So folks, after having experienced travel across the world on multiple occasions, I think the smart money is on: first a list, then a pile of items all put together in preparation, then left to ferment somewhere, and then packing your slightly fausty (but much better for it) clothes and miscellany about a day or two before leaving. This ensures that you have time to add things, have no time to worry that you have left that completely unnecessary nose-hair trimmer (or other item) that you feel you *may* use abroad, and have impetus to wash your clothes with more rapidity when in a foreign country. The last point is important, as we are all loathe to wash our clothes when we think that the 4 sets of underwear and three shirts we managed to squeeze into a suitcase can just about last for three weeks...

They can't. And even if they could, they shouldn't.

The magnitude and difficulty of this task is multiplied several-fold when moving to a new country and leaving the old one containing all your stuff behind. Those of you who are feeling flush will waste money on freight... And poor graduates who are moving in order to EARN the money they are lacking (like me) will try to fit a whole life into one economy class flight. People say "good luck with packing" and all I hear is "I don't envy you at all, thank God it ain't me!"

So, here I am, with my 'to-be-packed' pile (a veritable mountain) and my suitcase, ready for the 'big pack-athon', hoping that flying over East Asia won't result in a hijacking by Gojira (that's 'Godzilla' for the terminally uninformed). But honestly, the nervousness I felt about heading to China has dissipated like the grey after a bad storm - the storm is still there, but I don't know and I no longer care.

Excited.

I'm starting to wonder whether I should turn my journey in China into a part-gastronomic adventure. I have a list of things I'd like to try as long as my arm, and although I have managed to tick off such wondrous foods as kangaroo, horse, lamb sweetbreads (of the testicular variety) and so on (btw, I'm listing the NICE ones), I still have a long way to go, and I know I'll be able to get some foods I can't in the UK. So onwards and upwards with such delicacies as dog and snake. Details will come when I've actually had the chance to sample some of these delights, so until then, I'll keep it simple.

And on that bombshell (Jeremy Clarkson, you are a legend), I shall say good night.