IT'S GONE ... we can now all get out from underneath the duvet and look positively to the year ahead.

Blue Monday is the man-made title for mid-January's joyless 24 hours billed as the most miserable, depressing day of the year.

It sums up the feeling of jaded January and frump February when the festive period is finally over.

The bills are coming in thick and fast and there's only Valentine's Day to offer temporary respite.

What a pity we humans can't hibernate.

Researchers have shown that we really (cue The Boomtown Rats) don't like Mondays, blue or otherwise.

We can however banish such self-defeating labels by instilling in ourselves the upbeat mantra about ‘well-being’ every single day of the week.

Wirral Council has been promoting its own admirable self-help guide.

It’s a shame that just when they start a positive project they go and spoil it by bringing in controversial country park meters.

The borough’s beautiful greenery need more people to use them. This is not very forward looking.

Well-being is also about ‘being well’.

I’d like to see posters across Wirral's railway stations and bus stops that say 'please cover your mouth ... coughs and sneezes spread diseases'.

Thanks to such selfishness from fellow commuters I have been suffering flu for six weeks now.

So good riddance Blue Monday - until next year.

For now there is a short cut to attaining well being status every start of the week according to Andrew Oswald a 'professor of happiness' who told one tabloid: "Eat three extra portions of fruit and veg on Sunday take a bit of exercise before going into work on Monday ... oh and hide from the boss." 

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FAREWELL to much-loved goal- keeper Tommy Lawrence, the 'flying pig', who died last week.

It is one of the joys of my youth that I saw him play at Anfield in Roger Hunt’s 1972 testimonial game along with 55 thousand others. I can still hear the Kop singing in mag- nificent harmony.

It was a night of torrential down- pours as the goals rained in and Liverpool’s legendary team of 1965 scored eight against the opposition International 11, who netted six.

There stood the most unlikely looking goalie, taunted by his fans for being overweight and for com- ing out of his goal so much.

Yet his ‘sweeper keeper’ technique was ahead of its time and is copied by keepers the world over today.

Tommy, who went on to play 80 times for Tranmere, scored a penalty that magical night.

So it's true - pigs can and really do fly.

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BARNES stormer – another Liverpool FC legend is in the news.

Current Big Brother resident John Barnes has done so much on and off the pitch.

His work to stamp out racism is inspirational just like the late, great Cyril Regis who died on Monday.

I recall Jamaican-born Barnes during one derby game being hit by bananas.

He skilfully back-heeled them to the morons who threw them.

Now appearing in this reality show he actually warrants the word 'celebrity'.

I met him in the '80s when he officially opened a tiny Caribbean eaterie in Toxteth.

I recall telling him that it was my mum’s birthday and that she had a card signed by Graham Souness and the LFC squad - except him.

On the way out he came over and gave me a birthday card signed by him to my mum.

He had secretly popped next door to a card shop and bought one.

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AN Inferno bouquet to local heroes The Chrysanthemums Pantomime Society and their annual show.

The Wallasey-based organisation marked their 100th anniversary last weekend.

Past members from the 1950s and '60s were there to support the event.

A celebration of a real show biz family.

They have raised £250,000 for charities.

It's about time the organisation, whose patron is Ken Dodd, were honoured.

In 1918 they set about trying to lift the country out of depression by playing in a Wallasey field of chrysanths and raising £6 for the Red Cross.

A century on they are still doing it - spreading joy and raising money. Bravo.

How about Freedom of the Borough – it's time oh, yes it is.

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ROLL Up for a magical mystical tour.

As revealed in the Globe, The Beatles Story at the Albert Dock will present a truly fab exhibition called Beatles in India next month.

It recalls their 1968 visit to Riskikesh to 'find' themselves.

The '60s singer Donovan, who was part of The Beatles inner circle, told me everyone became a life-long devotee of meditation.

At one point John raised the spirits of musicians and Hollywood stars attending a lecture in the relaxing Ashram by the Maharishi when he went up and patted him on the head and said in his Scouse accent: "Now there's a good little guru."

Donovan, who taught John guitar techniques, loved John's humour.

He said: "I still mention it now in my concerts. I can hear him - fifty years on."

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AND finally ...

IT used to be Camilla Parker Bowles unfairly getting ridiculed in pantos, now it's Donald Trump, who became the 45th US President a year ago this Saturday, who gets laughed at.

While Donald ducks mentions of a UK visit, we can always see his wax - work at Madame Tussauds.

His infamous marmalade moptop is made of up of a mixture of human and squirrel hair.

Nuts ... indeed.

Peter Grant