When Squeamish Louise and I started Squeamish Bikini, we had the idea we would write lots of How-to features about things we realise at this stage in our 20s we should know how to do but had somehow missed out on.

One of these things, for me, is driving. Don’t worry; this is not a How-to on driving from a woman. It is about learning something most people get over and done with in their teens. Why, when my sister learned to drive at 18, did I somehow skip this part of adolescence? Here’s my personal history of driving.

This month Squeamish Sue’s been grappling with the ever informative DirectGov.UK site, weeping at her college friend’s wedding, disturbing other students’ exam time and holding barbeques in the rain. As Squeamish Sue says, it is most fortunate those college references have already been written.

My charity shop bolero debacle was worth it. Fern’s wedding was a great success; I looked wonderful!  What? Well yeah OK, Fern looked wonderful in her dress too, it was a lovely day and she looked utterly stunning. Her two little girls were bridesmaids and there was not a dry eye in the house as they walked down the aisle in front of her with their infant sized replica posies.  During the ceremony, Fern’s 2 year old daughter Katie, declared “I want to give my daddy a hug”, and jumped down to wrap her arms around his knees as he was about to say ‘I do’. Another Kleenex moment.

In April a 14 year old girl started up a petition demanding that Seventeen magazine commit to publishing 1 unaltered, un-Photoshopped photo spread a month. Julia Bluhm’s reasoning behind her petition followed Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson’s complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority last year regarding the photoshop of L'Oréal adverts, "Pictures of flawless skin and super-slim bodies are all around, but they don't reflect reality".  In turn Bluhm wants Seventeen to give girls “images of real girls” in their fashion spreads. 

I have spent twelve of the past thirteen years in long-term relationships, and am currently celebrating six months of singledom for the second time since the age of 17. As a result, until recently I’ve not really spent much time in the company of men eager to get in my pants. 

One of the main differences I’ve noticed between being single at 24 and being single at 30 is that the only men who hit on me now are married.

Sure, there are all sorts of changes to the dating world that have been brought about by the social media revolution – although the technological changes between 17 and 24 meant that the last time I was single I had to navigate the previously unexplored world of flirting by text, so I’m accustomed to gadgets changing the game. But so much has already been written about navigating social media flirting and I really can’t be bothered to flog that dead horse.

MPs on the culture, media and sport select committee have declared Rupert Murdoch "not a fit and proper person to have the stewardship of a major international company" or some of them have. Or have they?

The truth is we all get to that age where people might think we should ditch that empire we’ve spent our lives building. For some of us this is in reference to the Triop Kingdom we’ve nurtured through good times and mass cannibalism but for Murdoch this is, arguably, that and so much more. So we thought he might like some ideas of what to do next when this debacle has all, y’know, blown over. Here are some things Rupert Murdoch might be considered fit and proper to do…

The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF – which I shall continue to misread as ‘WTF’) has published a report that found over half of secondary school girls “… are put off sport and physical activity because of their experiences of school sport and PE”.  

The report claims we have a “nation of inactive girls”, just 12% of 14 year old girls are achieving the recommended level of physical activity, yet 74% of girls say they would like to get more exercise. The report explored the views of girls and boys on sport. Boys, for what it’s worth, at 14 aren’t too hot on achieving the recommended level of physical activity either – only 24% are managing it. 

The pill. For something so tiny it’s very demanding. Not only does it come with a schedule, there are several hoops to jump through before it can be obtained. Of course these hoops are inconveniences rather than any kind of battle to the contraception. An appointment with your GP, who will take your blood pressure, wonder aloud if you smoke and then possibly try to haggle you down to a cheaper pill than the Yasmin you specifically requested.

Pharmaceutical must-read Pulse magazine recently published the evaluation of a pilot scheme that allowed pharmacists to offer women over 16 the contraceptive pill without first seeing a  GP. One participating  pharmacy found a significant drop in demand for the morning after pill. The conclusion from this pilot, which 5 pharmacies in London boroughs Lambeth and Southwark participated in since 2008, is that girls as young as 13 should be allowed access to the pill from pharmacies without a prescription.  

There’s something I need to say. I am sick of discussions about fatness that patronise, lie, insult or dissemble. This means I spend a lot of time pissed off, and I don’t want to hold my tongue any longer.

I’m fat. This is not an insult or a putdown; it is a statement of fact. I’ve never understood people who try to use it as an insult either against me (um, yes, I own a mirror AND I know what size clothes I buy, thanks), or against women who are demonstrably not fat at all. How do you insult someone with a physical trait they don’t even possess? It makes no sense! Well of course it doesn’t – it’s not designed to uncover an awkward truth, it’s designed to chip away at someone’s self-esteem and make them feel bad. I’d like to put my name down for the campaign to restore ‘fat’ to its status as an adjective.