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  Sometimes I feel a bit like Simon Cowell when I look for a boyfriend - I want them to have the X-factor. It can’t really be defined what the X-factor is, but everyone knows what it is.  When it comes to relationships, I am completely aware I have been brainwashed by years of watching Rom-Coms, and I think it’s become worse with the introduction of Netflix, NowTV and Amazon Prime being so readily available.   Whenever I had an argument with a boyfriend, I knew I was 3 clicks away from being fully immersed into an American blockbuster where the life of the female lead’s life is going a bit tits up (which is my life most of the time) but then they meet someone and they live happily ever after.    I read that rom-coms are the female equivalent of men watching porn - both don’t reflect reality very well and both genders then have a higher expectation of love or sex than we should.    But, when it comes to finding the right person - you do want someone tha...

  There are two sentences I clearly remember my ex-best friend saying to me. The first was when we were 17 - “My mum is being a massive bitch, can I come and stay with you for a while?”   Of course I said yes and she came to live with me and my parents for about 2 months - it was pretty great, it was like living with the sister I’d never had. It felt like we were already 27, sharing a flat in Chelsea with each other, getting home from our fabulous jobs at PR agencies and discussing which pair of outrageously expensive shoes we would buy for the office Christmas party - when the reality is, we were living in my parents' house in Dunstable and complaining that we had no money or fake ID’s to go out at the weekend. I thought that my life would be the former and that it was a glimpse into a few years' time where we would be independent, rich and invited to all the cool parties in Soho. It turns out our lives wouldn’t turn out like that. The second sentence I clearly remember her s...