Buggy on eBay

Buggy number 4 is back on eBay. We used it twice. Finding the perfect buggy for twins has become something of an obsession - including running up to perfect strangers in the street just because they're pushing a tandem stroller. Sadly, I have to admit, I'm still not any closer to getting the perfect pushchair.

Before the babies arrived I didn't risk buying a buggy - I needed to know what was required. So we got a Maclaren (lightweight shopping type), just in case. At the same time we were given an old style Out n About Nipper. As soon as we moved into the new house we realised neither would fit through our doors. The result: one large buggy blocking up the corridor making access to every room in the house tricky; the other languishing outside in the bike shed.

Buggy number 3 (the most expensive: a Mountain Buggy) came and went in just one day. It may have been posh (over £1,000 new) but once again it was too wide - something the sellers assured us it wasn't when they texted us the measurement at 2cm less than it was.

And for the most recent mistake... an iCandy Pear. The one that I really thought would be 'The One'. The torpedo style - where one baby sits in front of the other - meant that we could, at last, get the thing through the front door AND into the study. Result. This was going to be a breeze getting on the buses. Another issue with a side-by-side stroller is that you count as two buggies... and only two buggies are allowed on a bus at a time so you can be waiting a while for an empty bus to come along (especially the number 37).

The problem with the iCandy became apparent when we borrowed the newborn attachments from a friend I'd met at the East Dulwich Twins Club. The babies were too big for the lie-flat cocoons - a metal bar got in the way of their legs - but too young for the sit-up seats. So it's bye bye to buggy number 4.

Ade has, sensibly, now imposed a one-in-one-out policy on buggies. Next up: a Phil and Teds.