Being single isn't so bad

By Catherine Portland

One of my favourite hobbies is looking at people on the tube. Who needs a book or the Metro when you've got real-life people to look at? I, in fact, look forward to joining the rush hour commuters for the wealth of people I will have to gawp at on my way to work.

Obviously there is never any shortage of hotties to while away the stops in London town but I have recently begun looking at my fellow passengers in a new light.

I am trying to work out who I am going to become when I am 45. And women from the generation before me, I believe, are an excellent place to start.

Now, every day, I find myself examining middle aged women – what they wear, what they read, how good they look and most importantly, whether they wear a wedding ring.

I realise this sounds quite weird, but, honestly, its not. I am not on the look out for a yummy mummy, but instead partaking in an examination of my future potential as a confirmed city girl for life.

But, as it turns out, analysing the type of women I admire has enlightened me in a way that may scupper the plans I had so carefully laid.

This is because the type of women I admire are unmarried.

They are the ones wearing jazzy jackets, reading a frivolous book, who have more life in them as they chat to their colleagues. You can spot them a mile off. They look like they have full and varied lives, having not compromised their career, friends or interests for a husband or children. They are enjoying the finer things in life, although not with a partner, but still having a great time.

These women probably did not plan to end up this way but they don't look like they are unhappy, extending the best years of their life from their twenties, through their thirties, into their forties and beyond.

This got me thinking about how society frowns on spinsters (what a grim word) over the age of about 35, to the point where they are pitied. But I think these women are actually having more fun than their married counterparts who are trawling home to some boring old husband who has thoughtfully left them a pile of chores to do.

The only problem is for the hip and happening spinster generation is that there aren't enough of them.

Like that scene in Bridget Jones where she attends a friend's dinner party as the only single, its only boring to be middle aged and without a partner if you aren't surrounded by friends in the same boat.

I think what we need is more people to embrace a life of singledom so the party-filled days of your twenties can continue, rather than it being the case that all your friends, one by one, are stolen away to a life of servitude with a boyfriend/husband and then start popping out babies.

This is the twenty first century when we are no longer defined by our ability to snag a man. So, I call on you, sisters! Let's break the mould! Let's not get tied down by convention! Let's unite and keep our sparkle alive! Let's keep on living it up!