As predicted, I am proving to be a fickle, fickle woman when it comes to the pram. After waxing lyrical about my love for the Mylo, I ventured starry-eyed once more into 2 baby boutiques (Babies Direct and Baby Bunting) to have another play.

Except this time, it was the eve of New Year’s Eve, I had just done a full day’s work, and I was feeling quite knackered and bloated and unattractive and hot while lugging a handbag all over the place that seemed to slip off my slim shoulder if so much as a breeze overtook me.

Suddenly, everything that didn’t weigh like a feather and wasn’t idiot-proof seemed insuperable.

First contender was the Urbo (Babies Direct didn’t have any floor stock of the Mylo). It requires you to grab both sides of the pram and lift a latch on one side while pressing a button and lifting the latch with the other. The entire pram is then supposed to sink to the ground like a ballerina and catch on the side, and voila. One folded pram.

Except my bag kept slipping off my shoulders, didn’t it. And while Tony made  it look so effortless, I was as uncoordinated as a drunk reverse-chimpanzee with short arms. By the 4th go, I was starting to form a blister on my right thumb and my mood was far from chirpy. I had visions of myself shaking the thing like a dog with a doll while a bus driver sits there waiting with thinly veiled irritation and pity, until finally I hurl the offensive pram into the field behind me like a bogan with a shopping trolley, and stalk off with bub on my hip wailing its head off.

So yes. Two-handed fold with a handbag on one arm? Not so good for me.

By the time I got to Baby Bunting, I was starting to doubt my Top 5 list. And true enough, the Stokke looked like a Droid now, and seemed ginormous when folded, and required 6 arms. As for my beloved Mylo… it folded in one wrist-twist with the seat on alright, but then it weighed upward of 12kg and became fat and bulky. Suddenly, pretty colours and flexible everything didn’t seem so crash hot when you’re irritable and tired. And Yummy Mummy is this close to becoming Potty-Mouthed Mummy.

So I hit Facebook and did a grumble. And then the Singaporean contingent responded.

Combi. It’s a Japanese brand, and it’s only been in Australia for 3 years even though it’s been around the UK for heaps longer, and in Asia for decades. Its walkers are really 70% stroller, 30% pram.

At first, I was horrified when we did an initial sleuth and learnt that the Urban Walker Groove comes in highlighter pink and scream-at-me blue. (But don’t worry, there’s a neutral colour. A punch-my-eye-out orange.)

But then I dug around more and came across the Urban Walker Prestige (Not so… uh… flamboyant). Which then led me to the Miracle Turn DX.

And here’s why I really like it.

  • It folds twice without you even having to bend over. Watch the first 5 seconds of this video. Don’t blink, because you’ll miss it.
  • It weighs 6.35kg (!!!!)
  • It has reversible handles that always ensure front steering because the wheels automatically lock, depending on the direction of the handle.
  • All wheels have suspension.
  • It reclines to 170 degrees so it’s “suitable for newborns”.
  • It has a huge canopy.
  • It does not look hideous.

Am I in love? Not really. This is the practical mother’s choice. Yummy Mummy with the brain engaged. But it ticks all the important boxes and folds like a dream. Tony and I test drove it today, and the folding really is as simple as all that. You lift two catches at the handle with one arm and give the stroller a flick, and ta-da! And then for the final fold, just push both sides in. And then sling it on your shoulder, like a set of golf clubs.

The biggest drawback: both of us kept kicking the wheels because we each have a long stride, and the wheels are set narrower than the rest of the prams we looked at. But then again, you’re always going to get that with a stroller.

We’re still thinking about it. But it seems like the wiser, more measured choice.