It's that time again

If it's the beginning of January, then it must be time to get the travel bags down from the loft and dust off the holiday gear.
This year we are off to Ecuador and Costa Rica for about 7 weeks - apparently it is good to 'stretch one's comfort zone' so a few weeks of speaking Spanish should take care of that. I still remember my efforts from an earlier trip where dinner consisted of a plate of plain boiled spaghetti with neither sauce nor any accompaniment - hopefully we will avoid a repetition this time.
We've prepared everything for the laying ducks and hens to go to their holiday homes and after what seems like months of rain there is nothing else we can do outside - apart from chopping firewood.
So the focus turns to sorting clothes for the holiday and trying to remember where we put those check-lists of essential items. Finding the essential items will be an additional challenge!
While not actually back-packing we are not planning to do any driving so we need to ensure that our luggage is manageable. Linda thinks this means two large trolley bags while I am focussing on a couple of rucksacks. Lets see how the compromise works out!
I managed to sort my clothes in about 10 minutes and 3 days later Linda is still procrastinating. Still she has another 6 days until we leave.