I googled "blue Monday." It came up with only the song, so I guess that it isn't a commonly used phrase in English.
When I grew up, Mondays were liked as little as in the rest of the world, and usually an "It's Monday!" would suffice as a general explanation for something going wrong.
Exceptionally bad days were labelled "blue Mondays." I guess the color refers to the blues or perhaps to the blue soap that was used to do the laundry. Monday there as here was traditionally laundry day.
::
Today was such a blue Monday. Well yes, I know it is Tuesday, but believe me, it was Monday!
#1: Today we started back at work. The entire lab closed down for a week over the holiday period, and it included an extra day on Monday for January 1 that fell on a Saturday this year. Now that is not as nice as it sounds: we get the 25th, 26th and 1st as company-sponsored holidays, and then we are compelled to take 3 more days of paid leave from our alotment (or unpaid leave, which would cut into your paycheck right over the holidays.) We don't have the option to work instead, but we are not given the three days for free either. (No doubt you can tell I'm a bit blue.)
#2: Halfway to work this morning I realized that I had left my ID at home. It has the standard ID picture and my name, but also incorporates an electronic keycard to access our highly secure labs. This meant that I had to stop at the front office first to sign in and get a temporary card. At least I had my driver's license with me as proof of identity.
#3: This is the biggy: when I got back to the car to drive all around to the far end of the campus where my building is located, it wouldn't start. Now on Saturday at the grocery store it had done the same (and yes, my lights were off) after less than an hour away. After a mad scramble (and about 90 minutes) we finally found a way to jump start it (it had been parked nose in in a packed parking lot), but once we reached home, the same happened again.
Since I had had the foresight to reverse in, we could easily enough access the battery this time to jump start it with the other vehicle, and so mpo took it onto the highway for a solid hour's run to try and charge the battery.
It seemed to work too. On Monday we decided to take it in for repair, but it started by itself, and later in the day a second errand saw no problems either, so we thought that it would be fine.
This morning it started as well - a little complainingly, but it is after all an old vehicle, and it was rather chilly. And then less than ten minutes in the parking lot in front of the lobby, and it expired.
::
Nini and mpo came to jump start it, and mpo took it in, where they replaced the battery and charged us a fortune. Let's hope that that does the trick now.
::
For those travelogue enthusiasts, I have reorganized some categories. I kept a running account of our short trip to the Bay area in California in September this year, accessible here.
As usual, it is in reverse chronological order, so start reading from the bottom.
When I grew up, Mondays were liked as little as in the rest of the world, and usually an "It's Monday!" would suffice as a general explanation for something going wrong.
Exceptionally bad days were labelled "blue Mondays." I guess the color refers to the blues or perhaps to the blue soap that was used to do the laundry. Monday there as here was traditionally laundry day.
::
Today was such a blue Monday. Well yes, I know it is Tuesday, but believe me, it was Monday!
#1: Today we started back at work. The entire lab closed down for a week over the holiday period, and it included an extra day on Monday for January 1 that fell on a Saturday this year. Now that is not as nice as it sounds: we get the 25th, 26th and 1st as company-sponsored holidays, and then we are compelled to take 3 more days of paid leave from our alotment (or unpaid leave, which would cut into your paycheck right over the holidays.) We don't have the option to work instead, but we are not given the three days for free either. (No doubt you can tell I'm a bit blue.)
#2: Halfway to work this morning I realized that I had left my ID at home. It has the standard ID picture and my name, but also incorporates an electronic keycard to access our highly secure labs. This meant that I had to stop at the front office first to sign in and get a temporary card. At least I had my driver's license with me as proof of identity.
#3: This is the biggy: when I got back to the car to drive all around to the far end of the campus where my building is located, it wouldn't start. Now on Saturday at the grocery store it had done the same (and yes, my lights were off) after less than an hour away. After a mad scramble (and about 90 minutes) we finally found a way to jump start it (it had been parked nose in in a packed parking lot), but once we reached home, the same happened again.
Since I had had the foresight to reverse in, we could easily enough access the battery this time to jump start it with the other vehicle, and so mpo took it onto the highway for a solid hour's run to try and charge the battery.
It seemed to work too. On Monday we decided to take it in for repair, but it started by itself, and later in the day a second errand saw no problems either, so we thought that it would be fine.
This morning it started as well - a little complainingly, but it is after all an old vehicle, and it was rather chilly. And then less than ten minutes in the parking lot in front of the lobby, and it expired.
::
Nini and mpo came to jump start it, and mpo took it in, where they replaced the battery and charged us a fortune. Let's hope that that does the trick now.
::
For those travelogue enthusiasts, I have reorganized some categories. I kept a running account of our short trip to the Bay area in California in September this year, accessible here.
As usual, it is in reverse chronological order, so start reading from the bottom.
