English in Madrid

Source:  Matthew Henry on Unsplash Blue Monday: Why it's a ' load of rubbish ' Christmas is over , it's cold and dark outside and that summer holiday seems like a world away . Blue Monday - also known as the most depressing day of the year - has been trending on Twitter all day .  Coined by psychologist Cliff Arnall in 2004, it falls on the third Monday in January every year. He came up with it after a holiday company asked him for a "scientific formula" for the January blues . Unsurprisingly , there was nothing scientific about it . Sophie Edwards, from Kent, has suffered with panic attacks and anxiety since the age of seven. She thinks labelling one day a year can be damaging for people dealing with their mental health issues . "I think Blue Monday is a load of rubbish to be honest - it's just a label on an ordinary day but it puts a lot of pressure on people who already have a mental illness to overcome it," Sophi...

Source: cetteup on Unsplash Tuesday at 10am is most stressful time of week Half of British employees pin-pointed mid-morning on Tuesday as their 'stress peak' - when their workload becomes 'too much' and they start to crumble under the pressure. The  (1) most/majority of workers said they coast through Monday getting their brain in gear and * catch up with gossip from the weekend and (2) discussing/speaking TV shows they've watched. But on Tuesday reality sets in and staff spend the very first part of the day * going through emails they ignored on Monday before planning the week (3) forward/ahead . And they're faced with a mountain of a to-do list to tackle and struggle with their boss' demands or impending deadlines . A spokesman for leading recruitment agency Michael Page, which  (4) made/carried out the research of 3,000 Brits, said: ''It seems our jobs are the biggest cause of stress in our lives - even little things l...

Source: Charles Deluvio on Unsplash Wednesday is the most miserable day of the week, claim researchers Wednesday – not Monday – is the worst day of the week, according to research by two American applied mathematicians. Professors Christopher Danforth and Peter Dodds, of Vermont University, analysed words used in 2.4 million internet blogs such as Twitter, giving a score out of nine depending on how positive they were. Words like free, fun, and rainbow all scored above eight, while words such as betray , cruel, hatred and suffocate all scored less than two. Saturday and Sunday rated predictably well but, perhaps surprisingly, Monday came out as the second happiest day of the week, partly because people were still reminiscing about the weekend. However by Wednesday, these feelings had subsided . Professor Danforth said: "People's daily experience is being reflected somewhat in what they're saying. And this is more of a story, we think, for Twitter messag...

Source: You Tube (Steven Brice ) Key words: Mondays Boomtown I don't like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats (When) The silicon chip inside her head Gets switched to overload And nobody’s gonna go to school today She’s gonna make them stay at home And daddy doesn’t understand it He always said she was good as gold And he can see no reasons 'Cos there are no reasons What reason do you need to be show-ow-ow-ow-own? Tell me why I don’t like Mondays Tell me why I don’t like Mondays Tell me why I don’t like Mondays I wanna shoo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oot the whole day down The Telex machine is kept so clean And it types to a waiting world And mother feels so shocked Father’s world is rocked and their thoughts turn to their own little girl Sweet 16 ain’t that peachy keen   Now that ain’t so neat to admit defeat They can see no reasons 'Cos there are no reasons What reasons do you need? Oh Oh Oh Oh Tell me why I don’t like Mondays Tell me why I don’t like Monda...