Bridget Jones's Diary - the best-selling book about the modern, single, partying girl - is hilarious and also reflects life for many career women of today. As the film of the novel opens, Emma Harrison explains why she and many of her friends relate to Bridget. She also turns diarist for a working week.

MONDAY

Start of a new week, de-tox plan essential after weekend of excessive drinking and late nights (actually not sleeping at night time at all). Four cereal bars, slim fast - v good. Pizza for tea - whoops, with a little mayo light (well one little slip is OK).

Honestly, why is it so difficult for people to phone at reasonable hours? Text messages are all well and good, but when an early night is called for you don't need your phone beeping with calls from friends/ex-boyfriends who seem to have forgotten the weekend's over.

Not a good start to the week. Tired, grumpy and decidedly late for work. 8.15am is an impossibility, 8.17am is more like it... and with the best of intentions my chosen outfit (neatly laid out last night) is crumpled and surprisingly un-smart.

But who cares, because joy of joy I'm sent to report on a sewage leak in Acomb. Walking through three inches of what can only be described as poo is not an easy feat with little strappy sandals on. Luckily one resident is happy to oblige and a plank is laid down for me to delicately walk over.

However, having the whole street stand and watch and seek to presume I'm just another blonde is all the more embarrassing. With a hardened face I try to do some serious news reporting but fail to get past the stench...

Oh well, a bottle of dry white soothes the nerves - gym's out the window, but I'll go tomorrow... must go actually, my tummy (newly adorned with a navel piercing) resembles jelly usually only seen at children's parties.

TUESDAY

Six glasses of wine, chips with cheese, pack of Marlboro Lights, more chips on the way home and a couple of vodkas just to round off the evening.

The after-work drinks thing got out of hand yet again. It always seems like a good idea to have a quick drink, especially with the lighter evenings. But when you're stumbling home with a decidedly off-colour colleague hanging off your arm, you know you've taken it too far for what is still referred to as a 'school night'.

Quiet night tomorrow though, one of my best friends and co-conspirator in the Bridget Jones lifestyle, Charlotte, is coming round for a quiet night and a gossip. Uhmm, that spells danger.

WEDNESDAY

I daren't (in fact can't) give an alcohol log - but the four headache tablets give a good indication.

Charlotte has decided to leave the country in a desperate bid to find a decent man - or men preferably. York appears to be desolate of any talent who can cope with us busy career girls. I even had to stumble an hour east to find myself in the hands of a gorgeous man. He's a police officer though, so how long will it be before he runs me through the system and my angelic face, attached to a bit of an inappropriate lifestyle, starts to add up.

The night turned into drunkenness - but thankfully we put the world to rights and managed to commit to never going back to an ex in the hope they will have changed - an impossibility.

THURSDAY

Very good, star points for me today. Plenty of fruit, cereal bars, dry bread and only the one plate of chips!

Nearly the weekend and need to de-tox and prepare my body for the days to come. Oh I love my job, well that's what I tell everybody. You never know what task is going to be thrown at you when you walk through the office doors. Very exciting, I hear you cry - but you should see what us female contingent have to put up with.

Sexist jokes are a norm. Obviously we give back as much as we get (I have an ally in the form of Rebecca, who sits next to me). So believe you me, it's tough in the glamorous world of media.

FRIDAY

Popcorn and nachos with hot cheese - essential when watching the idol herself in the latest hit movie.

Oh what a relief to see other women behaving in just the same way. So much to deal with - the pressures of careers, children, homes and being the perfect wife (that's if you ever find a man) would send any young woman straight to the gossiping chatter of like-minded friends and of course the vodka bottle!

Why can't this diary of life be as straightforward as Mr Mole's?

Bridget Jones's Diary opens on Friday