Thanks everyone.

I did file my nails a bit last night to shorten them slightly. Good thing I did because today I caught my longest nail in the rubber trim of the car door when I was opening it, and I'm quite sure it would have broken or flexed too much if it had been the same length as yesterday - as it was, it just hurt a bit. I think for now I'll file my nails once a week until it's my birthday at the end of next month - and then for my birthday I'll get myself a manicure

Alex_k - thanks for the links. I might try a French manicure at some point. I did buy the white for it years ago (not sure why I did)...