Blue Monday

Yes, folks, it's that day again, the day psychologists have calculated (or just decided) is the most miserable day of the year for many of us. This is down to a combination of worry over Christmas debt, broken New Year resolutions and grotty weather. Taking those causes in reverse order, yes, the weather is lousy today. We had fog (probably just very low cloud) and rain for much of last week but it cleared up for the weekend. Now we are back with our heads in the clouds once more and the paths through the woods where I walk the dog are inches deep in mud and rotting leaves.

I have yet to break any New Year resolutions, so that doesn't bother me, but since I didn't make any...

And I have no Christmas debts to bother about. (Yes, a wotsit at the end of a sentence is grammatically incorrect but it sounds so much better than 'I have no Christmas debts about which to bother'.) That might, on first reading, seem horribly smug. It might still seem smug on a second reading, but smug I am not. You see, I have been carefully squirreling money away over the past few months in order to pay the bills that always come in at this time of year. I just hope I have put enough aside to cover the road fund (or excise duty as I think it is officially known) on both my car and the Old Bat's, the insurance on both cars, the breakdown insurance, the house and contents insurance, the annual newspaper subscription, Income Tax - and the accountant's bill for working out how much tax I have to pay. (Why is it, I wonder, that I always have to pay more tax but the Old Bat always gets a rebate - and the accountant sends the bill to me! Something inequitable in that, methinks.) I'm sure there are other bills to come in but for the moment at least they have slipped my mind.

But to get back to generalities, there are apparently antidotes to Blue Monday. Dancing (though probably best not with Ann Widdecombe) is one, walking round the office barefoot also comes recommended - and it seems that doing somebody a good turn is a surefire way to beat the blues.

Can that wait until tomorrow? I shall be on transport duty for the stroke club then.