So here we are coming to the end of what is supposedly the gloomiest week of the year.

Apparently, according to some expert with too much time on his hands, a number of factors combine to make this week, and last Monday in particular, the most depressing and miserable of times.

The weather is rubbish, the Christmas cheer has faded, the New Year's resolutions have been broken, the festive debts have just hit, and it's difficult to get motivated.

But ironically I've always found this week of the year to be one of my favourites.

Not because I enjoy wallowing in depression or anything, but for the simple fact that it contains my birthday.

And this year it could have been so easy to spend the week feeling sorry for myself, what with it being my 27th birthday and thus the end of my youth.

But my family, friends and girlfriend all made sure I celebrated rather than commiserated and helped me have an excellent time.

So while others were making their miserable way to work in the relentless rain, I was living it up and loving it.

Still, there have been plenty of funny stories in the news to make even the most depressed crack a smile.

We've had Tom Cruise going crazy over Scientology, Jeremy Paxman making a fuss about pants, and bus drivers getting shirty with goths on dog leads.

The last story is my personal favourite.

Goth Dani Graves, 25, and his fiancee Tasha Maltby, 19, of Dewsbury, West Yorks, were thrown off one bus and stopped from getting on another because he leads her around with a dog lead and collar.

A bus driver allegedly told the black-clad couple: "We don't allow freaks and dogs like you on."

They are now complaining of discrimination and the bus company has apologised.

Miss Maltby calls herself a "human pet", and told a newspaper: "I generally act animal like and I lead a really easy life."

She doesn't go anywhere without her boyfriend, and when she does, it's on a lead.

Those crazy Goths eh, don't you just love them?

They're so determined to live a nonconformist lifestyle they're even willing to cast aside equality and basic human rights.

And if that doesn't make you raise a smile in this gloomy week, you must be a goth...