Live-in love

Sex whenever
When you’re dating, there’s pressure to have a brilliant time, every time. If you see your boyfriend at the weekend and don’t have a great time or, more importantly, great sex, doubts can drift into your mind about whether he’s the right guy for you. One of my friends admits her sex life was disastrous before she moved in with her boyfriend. If she had a sex-free evening with her boyfriend she’d spend the following day worrying about her relationship, her figure and her sex appeal. Now that they’re living together she boasts about her lively sex life and how liberated she feels from the weekend sex stress. The pressure is off to have great sex every single night when you live together, as you can do it whenever you want. Whether you do is another matter.

The real you
My step-grandmother used to rise every morning an hour before her husband to draw on her eyebrows and paint her craggy face. This way, her husband never saw her without her full slap. She still insists this is the only way to keep a man and constantly harasses my mother with her archaic beauty tips. Whilst this is extreme, some of those rituals from the early days of your romance are probably worth sticking to. It’s advisable to keep aspects of your beauty regime private, especially the depilatory routines. Being caught bleaching your moustache, shaving your legs in the sink or inspecting your bikini line could become memorable for the wrong reasons. Check your breath before kissing — as a wise woman once said, ‘When you can taste the saliva you know it’s over.’