Monday 17 January is Blue Monday, AKA the Monday alleged to be probably the most miserable day of the yr.
We now know that the day is pseudoscience, and began life as a PR stunt for journey companies seeking to promote holidays.
However there isn’t a denying that the mix of things recognized by Blue Monday founder, psychologist Cliff Arnal, (winter climate, post-Christmas debt and damaged New Yr’s resolutions) could make issues really feel just a little harder.
Now, persons are as soon as once more working from residence and self-isolating as a result of continued unfold of the brand new Omicron variant of Covid-19. Mixed with the fixed stream of unhealthy information – each within the UK and world wide – it’s straightforward to really feel overwhelmed by the January blues.
With that in thoughts, listed here are some issues to brighten your Blue Monday, from new journey alternatives to Britain’s longest-married couple revealing their secret to a long-lasting relationship.
Plan this yr’s staycation in the very best resorts opening this yr
Journey restrictions might have compelled individuals to remain put, however additionally they resulted in a newfound love for staycations as Britons rediscovered the UK’s vacation potential.
In response to Merely Enterprise, Google searches for “staycation UK” elevated by 173 per cent between June 2020 and June 2021 and the pattern reveals no signal of slowing down in 2022.
So in the event you’re within the midst of planning your annual go away this yr (and in the event you plan excellent, you possibly can get 45 days off utilizing solely 18 days of annual go away), there are an entire host of thrilling resorts about to open throughout the UK and Eire that will likely be able to welcome you.
Discover the very best resorts opening this yr due to our journey consultants right here.
Showcase your baking chops for the Queen
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is about to be the occasion of the yr, and he or she desires your finest dessert recipes to assist have a good time.
Buckingham Palace has known as on avid bakers to whip up a dessert match for Her Majesty and submit their recipes to the Platinum Pudding competitors.
The successful dessert, which will likely be chosen by Dame Mary Berry, Masterchef’s Monica Galetti and royal head chef Mark Flanagan, will function a long-lasting reminder of the monarch’s 70-year reign.
Flanagan advises entrants to maintain their recipes easy and concentrate on “delicate and chic quite than fussy and over sophisticated”, with flavours that “sing”.
In case you’re feeling the January blues, baking is usually a rewarding and attractive solution to increase your psychological well being and provides your self a goal-oriented, inventive exercise that helps you keep current.
We’ve acquired all the pieces you could find out about the best way to apply for the Queen’s Jubilee baking competitors right here.
The times are getting longer
In lower than a month, the solar will set after 5pm
(Getty Photos/iStockphoto)
The solar is now rising earlier than 8am and, lower than three weeks from now, it is going to start setting after 5pm.
It will not be lengthy earlier than we’re taking walks within the sunshine after work, and being woken up by daylight creeping via our curtains.
The UK’s longest-married couple have celebrated their 81st wedding ceremony anniversary
Ron and Joyce Bond, aged 102 and 100 respectively, have claimed the title of the UK’s longest-married couple after celebrating their 81st wedding ceremony anniversary on 4 January.
The couple, from Milton Keynes, marked the special day with a cream tea of their flat at ExtraCare’s Shenley Wooden Retirement Village.
Ron and Joyce Bond, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, could possibly be Britain’s longest-married couple after they celebrated their 81st wedding ceremony anniversary final week
(ExtraCare / SWNS)
Joyce stated: “We by no means anticipated to succeed in 81 years of marriage, we all know we’re very lucky to have achieved this superb purpose.”
She added that their key to an enduring marriage is that “there isn’t a boss in our relationship, we each give and take”.
Ron added: “Generally life is difficult however we work via it collectively. We glance after one another too.”
This 69p ‘Evening Time’ tea from Aldi would possibly provide the ‘finest evening’s sleep’ ever
If not getting sufficient sleep is contributing to your Blue Monday, this Aldi buyer has credited the grocery store’s “Diplomat Evening Time” tea with giving her top-of-the-line evening’s sleep she’s had in a very long time.
Shopper Lindsay informed a non-public Aldi UK customers group on Fb that she needed to strive the tea to see if it could assist her go to sleep, and it labored a deal with.
“Greatest evening’s sleep I’ve had in ages after this sleep tea,” she wrote.
However don’t simply take Lindsay’s phrase for it – different customers additionally praised the tea and claimed it helped with nervousness in the course of the day as effectively.
One individual wrote: “I’ve been taking the sleep one since two days in the past and actually it really works higher than sleeping tablets and likewise works on my nervousness ranges so I drink a cup right here and there in the course of the day… and the style is gorgeous too!!”
Munroe Bergdorf makes historical past as the primary trans lady on cowl of Cosmopolitan UK
British activist and mannequin Munroe Bergdorf made historical past when she introduced that she is the primary transgender lady to seem on the duvet of Cosmopolitan UK final week.
Posting in regards to the information on her Instagram, Bergdorf stated she was “BEYOND excited to share that I’m @cosmopolitanUK’s covergirl for his or her 50th Anniversary Situation”.
She’s going to seem on the journal’s February/March version, which matches on sale on 21 January.
Within the difficulty, Bergdorf gives recommendation to people who find themselves questioning their gender: “The very best recommendation I’ve is there’s nobody solution to be trans. Gravitate in the direction of what you are feeling, quite than what you are feeling you must do. You’ll discover a lot peace that manner.”
There’s a straightforward solution to combine up your day by day stroll in London
Sick of doing laps round your native park whereas working from residence? An unofficial tube map for walkers might enable you discover a change of surroundings in your day by day train.
As a substitute of tube stations, the Greenground Map supplies distances between out of doors areas like forests, parks and cemeteries within the capital.
Graphic designer Helen Ilus created the map to encourage extra individuals to journey by foot in London. So, subsequent time you’re struggling to encourage your self to depart the home, why not try a inexperienced area you haven’t visited earlier than?
Kaynak: briturkish.com