Tomorrow I am flying over to Iran for two weeks and as usual I am packing for a month and every eventuality. There are so many things to remember but what I forget is that I can buy everything I need over there and for a fraction of the price. So why am I so insistent on taking a case the size of my old school trunk, 40 pairs of knickers (TMI), three changes of clothes per day (hot, cold, indifferent, wedding, birthday, meals out, etc etc etc) and a shed load of books to read knowing that I won’t have time to sit down let alone read a book?

Who knows but I thought that I’d seek help to whittle down the contents of my case to the bare necessities and the Universal Packing List is what I found.

Here you can type in the overriding criteria of your holiday and the programme will tell you what you need to do before you go and what you need to pack! Fantastic!

Now, where can I get hold of some Sherpas?