IF you're chasing promotion at work, you could do worse than check your stars. Women planning career moves are placing their faith in daily horoscopes, in the hope that they'll unlock the key to their future.

They are turning to star signs rather than talking to their friends or colleagues, or speaking to a careers expert, says a new survey.

Personally, I've always been more than sceptical about anything to do with the stars. I used to check them, but got tired of reading, month after month, about how travel and passion would feature in my life - yet never venturing any further than Blackpool or getting passionate about anything other than a slice of gateau at the local cafe. Still, if there's a fat pay rise in the offing, I'm willing to give astrology another go.

I decided to check out my own horoscope in one of last Saturday's national papers to see whether I'm in line for promotion. I judged it on whether the week's predictions for me - an Aquarian - actually came true.

Prediction: You are in a really clumsy frame of mind and I will be really surprised if you can get through the weekend without breaking something.

Slightly true: I don't think I've been particularly clumsy, even after being awake for 19 hours on the trot (sleepless children) and drinking the best part of a bottle of wine. Yet I did let the bread board slip through my fingers as I washed up. It crashed onto the floor and broke in two.

Prediction: Friends mean well but could lead you into trouble with the very naughty aspects that are affecting many of the signs.

False: This seems to indicate that I mingle with a crowd who are into wife-swapping and writhing around on each other's three-piece suites wearing saucy undies. Were that true, I'm sure trouble wouldn't be far away (probably because my husband would insist on making the swaps permanent). But, in reality, the only thing that my friends and I ever get to swap - as has been the case this week - is gossip. "You know that snooty-looking woman who always ignores you? Well, I saw her in Netto the other day so she's not as posh as she likes to make out..." That sort of exchange. A friend did, however, try hard to persuade me to abandon a planned Tupperware party in favour of Ann Summers.

Prediction: Love is offering you a lot of fun, but first you must make up your mind. Are your intentions serious?

Very false: To my mind, love and fun just don't go together. Fun is about getting ready for parties, wondering whether HE would be there, having butterflies in your stomach, giggling with your friends who were all in the same boat, analysing the night in the early hours at your mate's house, over bowls of Cocoa Pops - that was fun. Once you embark on a relationship, however great, the real fun ends. As for the intentions bit, I'm just hoping the pensioner I chat to at the nearly new shop hasn't got the wrong impression.

There was nothing in my stars that could possibly have any bearing on my work. Maybe the answer lay in the tea leaves. The survey was commissioned by The Tea Council, which provides a daily web site reading with a tea leaf expert. I checked my own cup: one tea bag - bedraggled, saggy, has-been. Now that totally sums up my future career!