I agree that a different camera would solve the problem. But I love the portability of this one. It's so tiny I can keep it in my pocket or my empeg bag all the time, so I always have it with me.

Part of the problem is that your camera is a little out of date. Most of the small digital cameras now (including the new Ixus models) have a wider range of sensitivities. Your camera only does ISO 100, most of them now do from ISO 50 to ISO 400.

The jump from ISO 100 to ISO 400 means the sensor is 4 times as sensitive to light. That means in the same situation one of these new cameras will be able to use a four times faster shutter speed than your Ixus, meaning you are less likely to end up with blurred pictures.

With increased sensitivity comes increased noise, but the current crop of cameras probably don't have that much noise at 400 than yours does at 100.

As a comparision, on the Canon 10D I have 800, 1600 and 3200. I regularly use ISO 1600 in low light, the 10D has less noise at 1600 than many small digital cameras have at 50 (because the photo cells in the sensor are so much larger, which reduces noise). The Digital Rebel has 800 and 1600 as well, but not 3200 (which is not a great loss, 3200 is quite noisy), but the DR is a big step from the Ixus in both size and price

If you want good low light performance, but without going a large as one of the DSLRs then there are a few cameras that have 800 ISO:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscf828.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Fujifilm/fuji_finepixs5000.asp (but only at 1MP size)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Fujifilm/fuji_finepixs7000.asp (but only at lower resolutions)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Minolta/minolta_dimagea1.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_cp5700.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_cp4500.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_cp5000.asp

I'm sure there are some more, but I'm starting to get bored...

These are all quite a bit bigger than the Ixus. To my knowledge Canon don't do above ISO 400 on any of their compact cameras (not even their flagship G5).

Canon are planning on pretty much replacing their whole range of compact digital cameras this year (I think they plan to release something like 40 new models). I suspect the announcements will start in February, with the first big camera show of the year. Perhaps there will be some new compacts with better ISO ranges ?