Blue Monday

It's official. Today, Monday the17th of January is the most depressing day of the year. That's right, the worst day of the ENTIRE year. I'm hardly surprised. The weather is awful, the festive season was over long ago, chucked out long ago with the Christmas tree and your Nana's rubbish presents, and there seems to be nothing to look forward to.

Some extraordinarily clever people have worked out that there is a mathematical formula behind our January blues.

where weather=W, debt=d, time since Christmas=T, time since failing our new year’s resolutions=Q, low motivational levels=M and the feeling of a need to take action=Na.

Apparently, this makes sense to some people. I however, look at it and feel an instant desire to run away or  be violently sick.

However, there is some controversy about this Blue Monday lark. Apparently, it is linked to a publicity campaign by Sky Travel, and a university involved has distanced itself from the scientists who worked out the magic formula, saying that they no longer work there. Could it all be a hoax, designed to make us realise how miserable our pathetic lives really are and immediately book a holiday? Perhaps. More on the controversy here:

Whether today is actually the most depressing day of the year hardly matters however. As I write, there are:

348 days

8353 hours

501233 minutes 

left of 2011, all of which could be equally depressing, or fabulously happy, depending on whether you like your metaphorical glass is half full or half empty.

My feeling on all of this is mixed. On one hand, I like the idea of wallowing in self pity. Today is the nationwide equivalent of an excuse to curl up on the sofa in your PJs with some ice cream and P.S. I Love You.

On the other hand however, if we all contemplated  how rubbish the world really was, we would surely be living in a permanently suicidal nation. Chin up! Look on the bright side! Other patronising cliches! As I'm sure a wise person once said, there is nothing in the world that cannot be solved by a cup of tea.The scientists also say in a press release commissioned by Wall's ice cream, that the happiest day of the year will be on the 18th of June. Hooray :)

So, here are some reasons to be cheerful and some things to do to beat the Blue Monday feeling, which could rear its ugly head on a Wednesday, or even a Saturday in January, June or December. If you are extremely down, I apologise if this seems patronising. If you are on cloud nine, savour these for times of trial.

Reasons to be cheerful:
1. Friends and family
2. Spring
3. Valentine's Day (if you go in for that)
4. Or if you don't, being violently Anti-Valentine's Day and loftily scoffing at the horrors of our commercial and consumerist world.
5. Tea
6. Getting hooked on a good book
7. Trashy magazines.
8. Chips on the way home
9. An umbrella in a storm (ooh, deep.)
10.  Easter (and Easter eggs)
11. HOT CROSS BUNS!
12. Lambs and flowers and chicks and baby animals (and other hardcore things)
13. The clocks going forward=more daylight=summer closer.
15. The end of exams is in sight (for now)
16. Weekends
17. A long way off, but: summer! Beach trips, sunglasses, BBQs and ditching the thermals
18. Discovering great music and playing it non-stop. My current obsessions are Bombay Bicycle Club and Caro Emerald. (She's a Dutch jazz singer, amaaazing. Check out Riviera Life)
19. Lie-ins
20. Realising that whatever happens, your life is unlikely to ever be as bad as Kerry Katona's.
21. And finally, if in doubt: CAKE. This is one spectacular specimen that my sister made to raise money for her trip to Swaziland. (Cheeky bit of nepotism... ask me if you want one!)

Here ends my wisdom, roll on spring.