Suzette's Parenting and Breastfeeding Blog

Last Christmas, I bought each Ian and Isabel a hamster, making that one pair. Somehow, Ian did not develop any interest in the pets, but Isabel literally claimed both as hers. One is named Flurry and another one is Fizzy. At that baby’ist stage, somehow I already picked Flurry as my favorite, coz her fur is shinier and she is the stronger one too. But Isabel’s favorite has been Fizzy.

In the first few weeks, the two animals were living in peace… but not for too long. Slowly, we keep hearing screams… well, not really, coz hamsters don’t scream, but it might as well be… The squealing sound became intensive particularly at night, and it bothered me so much that I often couldn’t sleep well. At the end, I gave in, bought a smaller cage for the victim – Fizzy. Flurry was so active and agressive that it nearly bit off the ears of Fizzy, and Fizzy became so skinny because it could not even come near to the food tray or water.

But… things changed immediately after Fizzy has a new place to stay… Now only we know her true color, LOL! She is just such a lazy hamster, she only sleep and eat! Flurry is the opposite, she runs all the time, climb the wire, even hanging with the forelegs at the top of the cage, showing us all the dangerous stunts! LOL!

After a while… their shape can tell who they are. Flurry became skinny, and with her already shiny and dark fur, she looks soooo small. But Fizzy has developed into a soft ball. She can’t even walk on 4 legs properly, she actually drags! When I placed her on my palms, I could feel her tummy brushing my palms when she moves.

From The Suzette

Look at the top photo. On top is Flurry, thin and small. Bottom is Fizzy, round, fair and fat (flat!).

From The Suzette

When place into their ‘toilet’, Fizzy almost occupied the whole space. She could also sleep in it!!

From The Suzette

And this is the classic! When placed back to their cage, Flurry still actively running around, but Fizzy –> sleep like a dead one! Often she is spotted sleeping like this, and with lots of tapping she won’t move! Wouldn’t you think that she is dead?! Tsk tsk tsk! Animal also have this kind of lazy character! >_<

I’ve seen people testing Isabel on Opposite, in Mandarin. She seems to be okay with it, no mistakes. Up x Down. Left x Right. etc. Then the person told me synonym would be more difficult for the children compared to opposite.

So, the next day morning, in the car, I tried to test/teach Isabel, tried to give her the concept of synonym. And it ended up a disastrous attempt from me (very funny disaster!)

Me: Isabel, 妈妈的同义词是什么？
Isabel: 什么是同义词？
Me explained a while and told her: 妈妈的同义词是母亲，明白吗？
Isabel: 明白
Me: 那爸爸的同义词是什么？
Isabel: 嗯。。。啊！我知道！是公鸡！！

WAHAHAHAHAHA! I laughed till my tears out, for the entire next few minutes! :p

Well, even though iPad 3 is being launched this Friday, after a lot of research on users’ experience on the third generation, I’ve decided to go with the iPad2, saving me RM300 (ya, that’s the difference between the two generations).

Oh ya, I’ve given up hope to get back my stolen iPad2. Since the last post mentioning the loss, there were a few quite hopeful incidents, all indicating a high possibility to locate the thief and to get back my iPad2, or get some kind of justice. One of the Tesco security personnel was very helpful. He kept reviewing the security footage, and actually found the guy who took my iPad2. He told me they have his detail, so I made a police report.

It took a week for the police to start open the case of my report, and it was after a lot of effort from me to push for it. Then only Tesco security passed the video recording, the customers’ detail (with name, IC number, phone number, address etc) to the policemen.

One would think that the next moment is to talk to the customer who took my iPad, and then DADA! iPad is returned to me. Right? But not.

For that police to even interested to get the customer detail from Tesco – took 2 weeks from the incident date.
For 3 weeks since then, no news, and whenever I called to follow up, the Sargent said address incorrect, and they will investigate from different angle.
I am so disappointed with this. With the detail of that person yet nothing that I can do about it. Sigh!

Now my mood seeing this new iPad is so sour. Sigh…! Although waited 3 days for it to arrive (bought online again, really no time to go shopping, and I heard out of stock too), the anxiety was only waiting for it to arrive, now it is in my hand, I don’t even have the interest to switch it on. Maybe at night when my mood gets better… seeing this makes me missed my old one, more upset with myself!

From The Suzette

Oh ya, why didn’t I get iPad3? These are the issues I found out below. The overheat issue has been highlighted not just from the web, but also from personal experience of my business partner’s and my sister’s friends…

Issue 1 –> Overheating
Apparently the overheating can happen in just a short period of time, and only at certain part of the device. Some even claimed that the device can shut down by itself due to the heat. What if I’m doing a presentation half way and this happens? Do I tell my clients to wait an hour for it to cool down before we can resume? Certainly not!! And some claim that although no auto-shut-down, the device was too hot to be held by hand. Hmm… that is serious!

Issue 2 –> Unstable Wifi connection
This is similar old issue with one of the iPhone version. At some angle of holding the device, Wifi connection depleted to the extent that it gets disconnected. Well, my old iPad2 sometimes had the same problem, when I used it in my daughter’s room. Not sure if it is the same or not, or new (and even more terrible) issue?

Issue 3 –> Inconsistent Magnetic Polarization
Some reported that the device’s magnetic field does not respond well to the magnetic covers, even with the Apple’s own Smart Cover. Some examples are: when turned to the back of the device – it shuts down; when closed it doesn’t respond to shut down, etc.

Issue 4 –> The ‘Cons’ of Retina Display on Tablet
Retina display is great, but since most of the existing icons/graphics etc are not designed for it, some reported that the image becomes coarse and very obviously shown on screen. Really? Not so sure leh… Sour grape? :p

And there are a few other smaller issues but I think those can be fixed soon, not a big deal. To me, the overheating and the wifi issues are more severe, as these are design flaws. These flaws can only be rectified with the next generation, perhaps got to wait for another year. I don’t think I want to wait for another year for Apple to fix it. Since my experience with gen 2 is great, I will stick to it.

Ian doesn’t like coloring, as in using color pencil or crayon. But since he discovered water color painting, he loves doing it. This is one that he painted during school holiday last year (ya, I’m slow to post this!).

From The Suzette

Can you tell what he tries to paint? :p

Isabel is imitating him now. Her ‘specialty’ is princess drawing/painting. Will post one next time – we framed it and I lazy to take down. This one dropped on the floor and the painting came out, so I just scanned it. LOL!

It has taken me few days to recover from the grief of losing it, before I could write this post. All my fault, being so careless and so attached to it.

It all happened on Friday 23 Mar. As usual I played with it in the car, while waiting for Ian’s school to dismiss. After fetching Ian, we went to Tesco mall for lunch. I refused to leave it in the car, thinking it would be safer to stay with me. After lunch, we went down to Tesco to get fruits for our guests at night.

I chose a watermelon, very heavy and juicy. After paying, it was apparently too heavy to be lifted by one hand into the plastic bag, I put down my iPad on the counter top, at the part where we sign our credit card bill, only that this time I paid by cash. I also placed Ian’s tumbler on top of it.

After putting everything into the plastic bag, I took the tumbler and forgot about the iPad. No point regretting it now, though thinking of it makes me hate myself even more, each time.

When I reached the car, only then I realized iPad was missing. I ran back to the counter, it was not to be found. Went to the security counter reported it, filled up the form. The customer service manager and the security lady promised will review the camera and get back to me.

Until next day, no one called. We went back to the counter again. All the people I spoke to were not on duty on Saturday. We had to repeat the same process, logged in the complaint to a whole bunch of new faces. The supervisor again promised to view and get back to me, whilst they said that we are not allowed to see the recording as the security manager wasn’t around.

In the afternoon, the lady called and said that she has reviewed it and said that she saw me but I WAS NOT CARRYING ANY IPAD WITH ME. My mind went blank. I was so confused, thinking that I have Alzheimer. How could I imagine things?!

Yesterday, DH decided to insist that we wanted to see the footage. This time we have finally got to the right person who is very willing to help and kind enough to offer a few alternatives. He brought DH in to see the recording from a few cameras. It is clear enough from the camera I WAS PUTTING DOWN MY IPAD, before the camera switched to another counter.

What happened after I put it down, until I was completely gone, was not captured!

Whatever it is, actually, from the moment I realized it was not in my grip, I knew deep in my heart, it is gone forever.

I knew people’s heart is very evil and wicked now, but I just can’t imagine how people can find it and claim it themselves. It would not happen to me, even with something that I like so much, to take possession things not belonged to me. If it is me to discover a lost iPad, I would definitely bring to the customer service counter, instead of keep in my possession.

God bless the person who stole my iPad. I forgive you, you must be so desperate to have one until you would rather sin to have it this way. May they know how to reset to factory setting and erase all data in my iPad.

Don’t think I will get a replacement, until the generation three is available here. I will just continue to grief and have withdrawal for the next few months. (AAAHHHH!!! As I am writing, I am still feeling so much pain! I HATE MYSELF SO MUCH, HATE MYSELF!!!)