Completing the insurance claim for our lost bag has been hanging over my head for weeks. Bit by bit, I worked on finding every receipt for the items in the bag, which was tricky and time-consuming. Once I found all the receipts, I realized the format they were in from Amazon and other shops would not be satisfactory for the insurance company. Plus, they weren’t in PDF format and were not easy to submit.
I thought about this in the middle of the night weeks ago and found a great phone app I mentioned earlier called Mobile Scanner. They had a free version I tested, but the paid version was 100% more efficient. I bit the bullet and paid the annual fee of $39.99, knowing I could use this repeatedly. The ease of use is fantastic and better than other scanning processes I’ve tried over the years.
If I find that I won’t use it much later on, I can avoid renewing it. Still, for now, I desperately needed it to complete the time-consuming and cumbersome insurance claim for our lost belongings, available through the credit card we used to purchase the airline tickets with Ethiopian Air.
No, I couldn’t find all the receipts, but based on the fact we use Amazon.com so much, I found 90%. Once I found the receipt at Amazon, II went to the print invoice tab, used the scanner to scan it from my laptop, downloaded and saved it as a PDF document, and placed each receipt, numbering each one in a folder on my desktop.
Once done, I sent in the receipts via email in batches of five since often too many attachments prevent an email from going through, as we all know. Now, we wait and see what happens. I doubt they’ll ask us to complete more time-consuming tasks, but at least I submitted the claim on time. We’ll see how it goes.
Also, today, we’re waiting to hear back from the law firm in Cape Town regarding our next step in filing our visa extension. Most likely, it will be setting up our file online with South African immigration, which is another confusing and time-consuming process.
Once we’ve got both of these tasks under control, we’ll begin the process of applying for new passports using online services. We’ll do that part soon and begin the paperwork once the old passports are received. In any case, we’ll have to mail in our old expired ten-year passports to the online service company using FedEx or DHL, which should take several weeks to get to the company in the US.
Fortunately, we still have our four-year passports with over a year remaining. The reason for the urgency in getting new ten-year passports is that the cruises we have booked for August require no less than six months remaining on existing passports. At that point, we’ll only have five months remaining.
The humidity today is brutal and will only worsen as the week progresses. Today will be the coolest day of the week, and right now, while sitting by the veranda door at the dining room table, I am soaking wet in sweat. I have the portable fan blowing on me, but with 4½ hours of load-shedding in the works right now, the fan’s power is limited. The power will be back on in two hours or less.
As for the animals, we are in heaven. They are all back, particularly Norman, Nina, and the baby, who stop by many times each day. Norman and Nina are so loving to one another and to their little one. It is the cutest thing to watch. Plus, we’ve had an endless stream of kudus (many Big Daddies) and pregnant Bossy, bushbucks, duikers, and a variety of warthogs. It’s been quite fun!
The electrician is here all day but working outdoors to wire the house for the newer and bigger inverter, which will be ready to use by the end of the month. This will change our lives. We are grateful to Louise and Danie for tackling this hugely expensive project.
A little fun is needed amid all this dreadful “paperwork.” Can’t wait to put all of this behind us so we can relax, enjoy our day-to-day, and spend more time visiting Kruger National Park. It’s been quite a while since we’ve gone to Kruger with all the holidaymakers booking appointments to get inside the park. We prefer to enter on quieter days.
That’s it for today, folks. Have a fantastic Monday. Sorry about the Minnesota Vikings’ loss in the playoff games, another disappointment for loyal fans, including Tom and our kids and grandkids.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, January 16, 2022:
