BBC NEWS | Africa | Malawi: A mother's race against time

BBC NEWS | Africa | Malawi: A mother's race against time

Several years ago when Hayley was pregnant with Oliver, we saw a fireman's bike in a mini museum in Prague. I'm not sure how much real use it saw, perhaps none at all.

But here is a genuinely life-saving bicycle, used as an ambulance for pregnant women in Malawi.

Sadly my excitement at this story was dampened when I read that there are more Malawian doctors in Manchester than in the whole of Malawi, a symptom of the lucrative wages our government is offering in order to try to maximise improvements in our own National Health Service.

Born to be Wild?

There are times that Lucy frightens me to death. The powerful combination of her determined nature and her desire to be mischievous has more than once pointed her towards danger. Such as the times she has run away laughing in the direction of a road. Or her refusal to listen when I told her not to lean into Oliver's big toy box to get a toy and she almost toppled in head-first, finally ending up stuck upside-down (before Daddy quickly came to the rescue).

And there are times when Lucy absolutely melts me. When I pick her up and she throws her arms around my neck with her head on my shoulder. Or when my arrival at home is greeted with "Daddddyyyyyyy" as she runs into my arms. Or when she tells me to "get Oliver one, Daddy" referring to whatever I've just given to her. Or when she joins in with her big brother's play despite having no idea what the game is. In fact the list of these times is substantially longer than the first, so I'll stop there (for now).

For me this picture, taken this evening, somehow captures both sides of Lucy. She looks sweet and adorable, but there is no mistaking she wants to take possession of this bike and ride away on it. (Indeed, despite its rear wheel being locked she got it half way across the showroom.) And if I were the shop assistant, I'd be too charmed to stop her.

Daddy's two/three-wheeled taxi

Oliver has a swimming lesson on Sunday mornings and last week when Hayley took Lucy along too the little lady misbehaved the whole time resulting in Hayley being away from the pool area for much of his lesson. (A fellow Mum he knows was was still there so he wasn't worried.)

So this weekend we decided to leave Lucy with me.

After initial protests at realising Mummy was going out without her, she rather morosely slumped onto my shoulder and gave me a disgruntled hug. But I soon cheered her up by getting out her talking parrot which repeats everything you say. As I was late getting up I had some brunch and Lucy joined me for a piece of toast which she also fed to the parrot.



This done, I then took her down to Decathlon to try on winter coats. In the end we didn't buy anything but I got a good idea of the choice and she got to cheekily run away from me every time I said "can you try this on please Lucy".



I also bought her a new bike helmet as she has been using Oliver's cast-off, which is fine but I knew she'd love a pink one and it's always good to have a spare. On the return journey she fell asleep.



She was still asleep when we got home. So I sat with her until she woke up. And although the picture may make her position appear both dangerous and uncomfortable, I can assure you that the seat (a Hamax Siesta) is designed to do that and she woke up in a good mood.



Later, I fulfilled my promise of the night before to take Oliver out on his tag-a-long bike. He, too, wanted to go to Decathlon but this time for a snack and to look at the boats (canoes). Once there he also did some evaluation bounces on the large trampoline. For about 10 minutes in fact, during which time Hayley and Lucy turned up with two other kids and their Mum. So we ended up staying there til the place closed.

When it was time to go Lucy refused and so as an experiment Hayley pretended to leave and then hid behind a car. Lucy did not care one jot. Eventually Hayley gave up and carried the little lady kicking (well, wriggling) and screaming to the car.

On the way home on the tag-a-long bike, Oliver went very quiet and sure enough when I turned round he was looking a bit sleepy. When this happens we get off and walk for a while until we've woken up a bit. It wasn't a problem as we were nearly home anyway.

One last thing about today's bike journey with Oliver. He has grown slightly since the last time he was on the tag-a-long bike and he can now just about pedal properly. And I was amazed to find that when he does it is actually noticable! So I can now look forward to taking things just that little bit easier when we go out for a ride. Just don't tell the little man yet.