I had a terrible ebay experience recently.
Been ravaging the net for a preloved cot for Luca for almost a month now. Just a couple of weeks back, I found a Boori Classic Cot with a starting bid of $199 (yes!!! a Boori! who wouldn't grab a Boori at this price!?!!?). The ad went like this:
Boori Country Collection
Excellent condition. Purchased 3 years ago for one child in Australia.
Mattress also in excellent condition. No stains as it always had a protective cover.
2 in 1 configuration which changes into a safe childs bed. Cot can be placed at 2 levels, depending on baby's growth (climbing ability).
Internal Cot Dimension - 1330mm long x 780mm wideExternal Cot Dimension - 1410mm x 870mm wide x 1080mm high
Colour: Heritage Teak
Clean, smoke and pet free homeAny further questions don't hesitate to ask! (zee: 91847090)
PICKUP ORCHARD AREA - Prefer cash on delivery
I was the first to place the bid, and after afew days, still the only one... funnily enough. Anyhow, I contacted the seller to see if I could view the cot since I was in the town area. I did not get to 'see' the cot as it was dismantled and packed by their movers when they relocated to Singapore. She agreed to close the deal with me even before her ebay auction ended.
I assembled the cot immediately when I got home and found that a screw was missing and the runner on the drop-side was terribly worn. Worse of all, there was a crack on one of the wooden panel.
I contacted Mother Works hoping that they could 'revive' this cot (see?!?!?! I'm that hard up for a Boori!!!), but it will cost me an additional $600 to buy a new headboard for the cot! So of course I told the seller I'll need to return the cot and demanded a refund. But she said that the cot was sold on a no-return policy. Can you believe that? I mean... after explaining how it just wasn't acceptable to sell something not usable, she was still so adamant about her 'No-Return Policy'! I told her I'll give her the feedback she deserved and she ignored my sms! I now know why she had the audacity to ignore me... cus she removed her cot item from ebay. How lucky can she be? It was probably my fault for not completing the transaction on ebay, so I am not eligible for ebay's protective services:( She must be the most unethical ebayer around, because I've had such good experience on ebay before. So guys... be warned! DON'T EVER BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS SELLER 'SHERU2005'.
Anyways, I refuse to dwell on this too much.... the search for Luca's cot continued. And I was successful the second time round! This time on Craig's List;) Bought the ultimate Boori Sleigh at half price!!
Wow! I still can't believe it's been 8 months since I've had Luca. They say a baby grows up really fast, especially his first year... but this is toooooo fast! 4 more months and he's gonna be a toddler!
Today, this not so small fellow gave me a 'present'!
Thanks dude... the value of your cot has just dropped by half.
Weight: 8.6kg
These are his current milestones:
- blabbering alot
- sits unsupported
- crawling and rolling so much, and so fast, that on occasions he falls on his face and on the back of his head - the hard knocks of life!
- enjoys pulling himself up to standing in his cot, while being carried, against the wall,... basically whenever he can.
- readily accepts new foods and tastes (for the last 2.5months since he started on semi-solids, these are the foods he's had: white rice cereal, brown rice cereal, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, avocado, apples, pears, plums, bananas and baby yogurt!)
- seems to be aware of his surroundings (noticed his cot sheets was different when I changed to fresh ones for him, and he was so used to taking his bath in a white tub that he wailed when we used a red one. hmmm - no good, no good)
- his front 2 teeth has emerged, and I believe he's got the lucky gap as well! just like his papa! hilarious!
Just another messy meal time with this little rascal!
Seems quite unlikely, but some of my good friends now I actually got to know while teaching yoga.
Met up for lunch with two of them at The White Rabbit yesterday. The restaurant recides in an old chapel in the Dempsey area and with the high ceilings and long tables, it felt like we were dining in the great hall of Hogwarts! Whimsical!
Oh! We noticed Luca has pretty expensive tastes! hah hah!
Luca's 1st christmas present (way in advance!) from Aunty Charina! I gave it to him the very next day, since he's got no concept of when Christmas Day is anyway! kek kek!
The news is out. Yes, we'll be relocating. Very soon.
We spent a week in Sweden recently, main purpose was to find an apartment (which we did). And since both of us lived there before, it was really a 'preview' for Luca. We wanted to see how his first flight would be, and also to let him have a taste of autumn before hitting the full-blown winter in January.
So, here's our story.
Luca's first flight... no fun. But it wasn't as bad as we had imagined. We were lucky it was a 1am flight, hence it wasn't too difficult to get him to sleep. And when he was awake, Dave and I took turns to carry him, so one of us could sleep for a awhile. We had to take turns for meals too. And for the first time on a long haul flight... no in-flight movies for us.
Luca's first vacation... wasn't all fun for him either. Temperature was between 5-9 degrees and throughout the whole trip, he suffered from super dry skin on the cheeks and chin, was coughing and had a nose that was all stuffed out to the brim. Plus he had his first case of constipation due to the dry weather and he was possibly alittle dehydrated as well. Top it all off with jetlag... we got a real grumpy baby in our hands!
But we decided we still had to do what we had to do! Apart for house-hunting, we had to introduce some of our favourite places to Luca!
Coffee at Solde.
Carbonara at Spot.
Sushi at Musashi.
Rice paper rolls and pho at Mrs Saigon.
Of course it can't all be about food! We managed to meet up some friends too!... over food!
Dinner with Roger at our hotel's Lean Grill & Bar.
Linda and Nora finally meets Luca.
And Karren whom Luca absolutely adores.
And then there's Isabella, all grown up now!
Although I had quite abit of fun getting re-acquainted with Sweden, I was looking forward to return home to Singapore - for now, I needed to get Luca back to the humidity level he's used to.
The return flight was, in one word, painful. Luca just could not get comfortable in the plane. There wasn't any personal space for this grouchy baby with dry peely skin and blocked nose. I remember I used to get real mad at crying babies on the plane... so I totally understand how we must be the most hated family on board. I had to cuddle Luca for most of the 12 hours back home.
We were all exhausted. We all came back home sick. We all lost weight.
And we have to do this all over again in 2 months time.
