Single Girl's Must Haves

An ever expanding music library

Once a friend described me as the female version of Rob – the main character of High Fidelity, the only difference I have a better wardrobe.

Music is essential to anyone and thanks to heaven-sent websites such as myspace and lastfm, it’s impossible not to have a rocking soundtrack for every moment.

Books books books

The more, the better.A good book is infinitely better than any movie/tv show.

Sleeping like a diva

I’ve always dreamed of having the Titanic Of Beds: humongous and lavish. The type of bed you’d wake up in after a blissful night, stretching luxuriously and elegantly with birds singing out the windows; a 7 am hybrid of Sleeping Beauty and Audrey Hepburn.

Being in a fantastic and comfortable bed makes it wonderful to just lay there for hours on end, reading, checking emails, listening to music or daydreaming.
Okay, your career might take a blow especially on those rainy Monday mornings, when it’s so warm and fluffy under the covers. I use this following piece of logic in those difficult moments: if I get fired, no more comfy pillows. I’m showered and out the door in 15 minutes.

Nigella Lawson cookbooks

I subscribed to the Carrie Bradshaw’s school of cuisine: “The only thing I’ve ever successfully made in the kitchen was a mess… and several small fires”. I moved out of my parent’s house at 18 and only now, 8 years later, I’m half-capable of preparing a meal resorting to other tools than a telephone and a takeaway menu.

I love her shows, she makes cooking look so easy, it gives me hope of someday not half-destroying my kitchen to scrape off anything more elaborated than a grilled cheese. Also, as embarrassing as this is to admit, I buy her books the same way some people subscribe to a gym but never go: just reading them is enough to make me a reasonable cook.

www.nigella.com

Bottoms up!

If I ever have a child this will be my advice when he/she turns 18: ALWAYS have champagne and wine in the fridge.

It doesn’t have to be Dom Perignon and Chateau Lafitte, it’s more than possible to get decent wine and champagne for reasonable prices. Girl talks get roudier, dates better and nights in watching movies nicer.

Step it up

Along with humiliation, fits of tears at the sight of a lonely toothbrush, seeing couples everywhere, one of the worst things about a breakup is not being tall enough to reach the highest shelves. I’ve even considered taking an ex back just so he could come over and retrieve my winter scarves, carefully stored at the top of my closet (we were together back then, he helped).
Some girls mention this problem along with opening jars of jam, but thanks to the laws of physics I can do that by myself and here’s a tip to to those who still struggle: light one of the burners to a medium flame, hold the jar upside down – the cap facing the flame, wait for 5 seconds. It will pop open on your first try, it’s magic. But being 5’2’’, a lot is out of my reach, and I can’t grow an extra foot and a half on demand, so I bought a folding portable ladder and ever since, have recommended it to all my friends. 

Sex And The City setbox

It’s only a cliche because it’s true: this show is the ultimate comfort viewing for all girls. Even though I know all the seasons almost by heart, it still makes me laugh and cry.

A stocked fridge

I don’t mean the married-with-15-kids type, in which you can find almost anything and filled with so much food it looks like the contents could feed a small nation. However, there’s nothing more annoying than being all set up on a Sunday morning, with coffee-newspaper-music and having only half an apple to munch on. Also, since my friends drop by quite often, I enjoy having something to offer.

These are my essentials:

• Bread
• Fruit, lots and lots (I’m a vegetarian, they go by quickly)
• Pasta sauce
• Cheese
• Pringles
• Peanut butter
• Strawberry jam
• Frozen pizza
• Vegetables
• Various fruit juice (always handy for making a cocktail)
• Wine
• Champagne
• Vodca

Discover the Van Gogh/Sylvia Plath inside you

If I take time off my day to share my opinion with a modicum of care on the Internet, imagine what my journals are like. Some people are ashamed of admitting of owning journals obviously I am not one of them. I have all of them, since I was 9. Although most of that idiotic self-absorbed stuff makes me cringe, it also takes me back to when they were Deep And Meaningful Insights.

Today most of my journals consist basically of sketches and bits of music, scrabbled on countless moleskines. Why moleskines? I bet Van Gogh didn’t feel he was doodling idiocies, now did he?  

A fabulous and overly chatty manicurist

I don’t officially have a therapist, but I believe Lucy, fills in quite well. She might not give the wisest advices out there, but they sure are the funniest. She also knows all the gossip on celebrities and ever since I started going to her salon, I’ve developed a very unhealthy habit of logging on to tabloids websites to keep updated on the life of certain ones.