Fitting as much into a confined space as possible is becoming a bit of an obsession. I now have, in one small crumpler laptop rucksack the tools needed to:

1. Sleep in a jungle
2. Keep warm down to minus 7
3. Earn a living on the internet
4. Have a game of cribbage
5. Record and make music yadda yadda yadda..

I made a list of my top 11 items in my Location Independent Digitally Nomadic Cyber Gypsy Travel Checklist, but must confess to having fallen out of love with a number of the items even before setting off.

The Tesco super light sleeping bag that I was sure would be a bargain turned out to be the most awful bag of junk I have ever had the bad fortune to put my CyberGypsy paws on. I never even got to sleep in it – my girlfriend Baffy (yup, she’s coming along this time and is a ‘mad as a bag o sparrers’ Aussi gal that’ll brighten up any around the world trip) said she liked the colours and was going to use it herself. I passed it over to her, then quickly talked her into using the Karrimor bag she was passing up for it.

The problem with the Tesco ultra-light bag was that it was actually quite weighty, plus the nylon had the feel of something that’s meant to annoy more than scratching finger nails down a blackboard. I reckon I’d kill myself after sleeping for an hour in it.

So I replaced it with a Vango Venom 150. It’s smaller and more comfy – still not a Rolls Royce, so next year I’m investing money in down, but for now this’ll do

My Karrimor boots stank so much I went out and bought some other random hiking/running/water-ski trainers.

My Sennheiser phones got swapped with a pair of Nokia headphones that I can use in my phone as well as with my laptop. They quite ingeniously fold flat so don’t need to be all gimmicky like the Sennheisers. They seem to sound better.

And I haven’t even left London yet (we fly tomorrow).

I also forgot to mention the Korg Nano keyboard and the H2 USB mic I use to make music, I didn’t fall out of favour with them but replaced the Nano due to a key falling off on my last trip – a bag was included in the price to stop this happening again. I must also remember to MAKE MUSIC with them this time as the last time I recorded loads of sounds, but was too distracted to get them into compositions. Brazil must surely be a good place for some rhythms!

Anyhow, this year I am trying the ‘travel with Girlfriend’ thing. I am breaking with many years tradition of journeying alone and am sure I’ll be all the better for it.

That’s if we get to the airport. London Underground workers strike tomorrow and there is a big terrorist alert. Get us to S.America NOW.