“Death and taxes”, the old saying goes, are the only things that are absolutely certain in life. Well, I’d like to suggest that living in the 21st century, there are one or two things that could be added to that list. Its just a matter of time for most people – and the more active you are, the more the odds stack against you.

For me, two of those things are: lost luggage by airlines, and online identity theft.
In the first 34 years of my life, I have never had either of these things happen to me. But it was just a matter of time. In the past 3 months, I have had a bag go missing on an international flight (in the USA), on a local flight (between Joburg and cape Town), and today have just been hit with a serious amount of fraud on my wife’s credit card.
In all cases, the authorities were fairly good at helping me resolve the issue. The bank is refunding the full amount as we speak (I hope). I have my bags, and all their contents.
I won’t stop flying. I won’t stop buying over the Internet. And hopefully now that its happened to me, I can go another 34 years before it happens again!