I'm single and I'm sick of my smug married friends treating me like a freak show. Maybe they could tell me about their thrilling sex lives...

I'm single and I'm sick of my smug married friends treating me like a freak show. Maybe they could tell me about their thrilling sex lives..

. By Sophie Cockerham Published: 12:00 BST, 31 May 2024 | Updated: 12:06 BST, 31 May 2024 e-mail 9 View comments I'm sitting around the table at my friend's 30th birthday meal, with a group of women I know from school, but haven't seen in several years. We've been catching up on all the usual topics: work, family, holidays and so on, when the conversation turns to dating.

Or should that be my dating. Because I am the only single one in the group. 'How's Hinge going, Sophie?' one of them asks with a prurient grin.

'Have you been on any funny dates lately?' Immediately, all eyes turn to me. There may as well be a spotlight above my head and my name in neon lights, with a ringmaster crying out: 'Roll up, roll up, come and see the side-splitting singleton Sophie!' I have been called 'a Northern Bridget Jones' by my friends, Sophie Cocherham writes Of course, there is something cathartic about sharing an awful dating experience with friends. From the man who made me watch his bad electronic dance music video in an otherwise silent pub, to the Olly Murs wannabe, to the one who kept me up until 3am explaining how the pyramids had been 'planted on Earth by aliens', the past two years have been filled with plenty of funny anecdotes as, aged 30, I navigate being single for the first time since my late teens.

But while I'm happy to share my stories,.