It’s not true, Blue Monday.

23rd January 2023

Thank you to everyone for their efforts this week. It’s been, in a meteorological sense, a much better week. I know that it’s been cold and defrosting the car or putting on the gloves (if we’re walking into school or college) before you set off on the morning can be something of a pain, but it’s been far better and brighter this week than the very wet and windy weather of the previous couple of weeks.

 

We’re at that point in the year when I return to something of an old favourite theme of mine. It’s probably past you by, but Monday just gone (16th January), the third Monday of the new year was set as Blue Monday. And here’s why it’s real…

 

where W=weather, D=debt, d=monthly salary, T=time since Christmas, Q=time since the failure of new year’s resolutions, M=low motivational levels, and N_a=the feeling of a need to take action.

 

I think we’d be best to conclude that the pseudoscience is nothing but nonsense, designed to get us to book our summer holidays. Interestingly and as a counterpoint, the Monday closest to Midsummers day, therefore 19th of June this year, is deemed to be the least depressing day of the year – that was determined by some more science (there’s probably and equation to prove it) and it was published by the makers of Wall’s Ice Cream. It really doesn’t all add up. We can’t use mathematics and science to prove what we are collectively or individually feeling. I don’t buy it. Although, I did buy Blue Monday (12 inch) by New Order back in the 1980s.

If we are in a time of year when things are a little more difficult maybe I should take the opportunity to find something to put into this week’s message, something which might cheer us up and keep us going to until the end of this half term and into the cheerier, warmer and significantly more pleasant Spring days.

 

To do that I come back to something I touched on before. I’ll be nice to most of us, and usually established by some retailer or marketing guru, we have a whole host of themed days set for each day of the year. Some really juicy ones that you might have missed.

Friday 20^th January is (was):

National Coffee Break day – did you?

Penguin Awareness Day – now there’s a link! How come, when you were child, you actually thought the blue penguin was tastier than the red penguin – was that just me?

National Cheese Lovers Day – every day, surely?

Saturday 21^st January is (was):

One-liners Day – linked with the cheese lovers? And because that’s officially the day for it, what about these to make you smile?

 

• ‘My father drank so heavily, when he blew on the birthday cake he lit the candles.’ Les Dawson
• ‘I was in my car driving back from work. A police officer pulled me over and knocked on my window. I said, ‘One minute I’m on the phone.’ Alan Carr
• ‘I worry about ridiculous things, you know, how does a guy who drives a snowplough get to work in the morning… that can keep me awake for days.’ Billy Connolly
• ‘I used to go out with a giraffe. Used to take it to the pictures and that. You’d always get some bloke complaining that he couldn’t see the screen. It’s a giraffe, mate. What do you expect? ‘Well he can take his hat off for a start!’ Paul Merton
• ‘Here’s a picture of me with REM. That’s me in the corner.’ Milton Jones
• ‘People say ‘Bill, are you an optimist?’ And I say, ‘I hope so.’ Bill Bailey
• ‘I rang up British Telecom and said: ‘I want to report a nuisance caller.’ He said: ‘Not you again.’ Tim Vine

 

And laughing is good for you, promoting stress relief, giving your immune system a boost, reducing depression and giving yourself a mini-workout.