How was 22 January for you? If, say, your car broke down, you got dumped and you lost your job, rest assured it's just God's way of telling you you're perfectly normal.

A scientist has come up with a model supposedly proving the 22nd was the most depressing day of the year. The formula takes in six contributing factors: weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since last attempt to quit job, motivation, and the need to take action. Or, in short, [W + (D-d)] x TQ M x NA.

Although, quite how you quantify 'the need to take action' we can't tell. But then Cliff Arnall (he who devised the formula) obviously knows his stuff - having also discovered that 18 May is the best day to make your New Year's resolutions, and that 24 June is the happiest day of the year.

Incidentally, a quick look at Wikipedia will tell you that 24 June is notable for: the start of the Battle of the Somme (1916), Tony Hancock's suicide (1968), and Eton College being founded (1441).

Happy days, indeed.