A Story I Couldn't Have Written Ten Years Ago

Katie sat on the London Midland train, on her way home from another busy day behind the counter at Cartridge World. She flipped through her copy of Metro and filled in a few squares of the sudoku.

She hummed along to the Coldplay, Will Young and Rihanna songs on her iPod until she was interrupted by Amy Winehouse playing from her phone. She answered it to find her friends Sophie and Charlotte had sent her a video of themselves posing in their new Twilight tee-shirts.

Katie sent Sophie a text in return and reminded her of their long-awaited trip to London to see the Take That concert.

'CU@ O2 2MOR'

She turned to the newspaper's TV listings and planned her night in. The One Show, How Clean Is Your House? and Celebrity Big Brother would pass the time away, she decided. There was a clash at 9 o'clock so she decided to watch Spooks and record Heroes on Sky+. The hard drive was getting a bit full though, but she reckoned she could make some time to watch an old episode of 24 or Torchwood she had lurking on there. Then she fancied snuggling up in bed watching the Freeview box - Family Guy on BBC3 or Skins on E4, maybe.

Turning the page, Katie saw the review for the previous night's Ashes To Ashes. She groaned as she realised she'd forgotten about it but made a mental note to catch up with it on the iPlayer over the weekend.

She logged into her bank account on her iPhone, checked the balance and smiled at the extra cash she had in there. Her Irish Facebook friend Tara had sent her 10 Euros via PayPal for her birthday and, in an impetuous moment, she paid it into her Paddy Power account and gambled it on an accumulator, guessing the winners of The X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here. Joe McElderry, Chris Hollins and Gino D'Acampo - result!

The train pulled into the station and the man in the aisle seat briefly took his eyes from his Da Vinci Code paperback to let Katie past. As she began the short walk home, she could almost smell the aroma of sushi drifting on the wind from her kitchen, waiting for her to arrive. Then before she could calculate how many minutes she'd have to spend on her Wii Fit to burn it off, Jonas, the neighbours' Labradoodle, barked his welcome home.