MORE people are living alone than ever. No wonder the greenfield sites are being eaten up to provide new homes for the increasing number of singles.

It's all down to people waiting longer to get married - or those who didn't, getting divorced.

Life can be pleasant on your own, there are many advantages like:

1 You can leave things lying around and no-one moans

2 You don't have to cook if you don't want to

3 You can watch what you want on telly without being annoyed by someone whizzing around the channels with the hoofer doofer

4 The phone is always for you

5 You can get in the bathroom when you want.

Selfish eh? I'm not saying it's all good fun because there are advantages of having a man about the house, especially a Handy Andy.

Any girl thinking of going solo should think about that. It costs a fortune to get a little mending man in.

On the other hand, men, if they're thinking of going it alone, shouldn't forget their underwear and socks don't walk to the washing machine and back into their drawers, neither do shirts wash and iron themselves and crawl back into the wardrobe.

Food doesn't cook itself, pots don't wash themselves and bed sheets don't change themselves.

Perhaps today's new man is a different animal from the slobs who expect mum, then a wife, to run after them, and that can only be a change for the better.

But I do wish couples would try harder to stick together, even if its only to save some of fast vanishing countryside.