I've been reading through Rolling Stone Magazine's Best Albums of 2011 and I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised to see that at number 38 was Mastodon with their latest album 'The Hunter'. Rolling Stone tends to lean in the more grown-up pop and alternative music direction these days rather than the rock'n'roll of old, so it's amazing to see a heavy metal band in their top 50. Sure, they may have been thrown in for good measure, just to mix things up a bit, but it's refreshing to see. I've got some older Mastodon albums stored on my r4i card, but I'm going to have to get this one now and see how it is. I'm not a big sludgemetal fan, but this Rolling Stone review has certainly got me intrigued, it says its more rock-radio sounding than anything else, apparently. Sound good to me!

Calvinists would interpret Christopher Marlowe’s ‘The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus’ is a very different manner to the anti-Calvinists. Calvinists would understand Faustus’s damnation as inevitable, his soul’s resting place in hell being predestined from the very beginning. Faustus represents the worst kind of sinner for the Calvinist as he tasted the heavenly gift and he rejected it. The play demonstrates Calvin’s “three-tiered concept of causation” in which Faustus’s damnation is initially willed by God, then by Satan, and finally by Faustus himself. The anti-Calvinist view would find such thinking abhorrent and would instead interpret Doctor Faustus as a criticism of such Calvinist doctrines. Peter Baro, one of the most esteemed critics of Calvinism in Marlowe’s day, argued that such teaching generated despair amongst believers in place of repentance amongst sinners. Why not use your cheapsmells discount codes to buy the play as see what you think? Is it Calvinist or anti-Calvinist?

What is the hardest thing for you to do even if it will benefit you? Go for a run everyday to make sure you stay fit and healthy? Or maybe it’s avoiding those high fat, high carb foods which taste so rewarding, but in reality will make you suffer in the mirror for months? Alternatively perhaps it’s walking two minutes to the shop instead of driving to cut down on your fuel bill and your carbon footprint? Finally, it might be sticking to that all-important new year’s resolution to make sure that you don’t drink too much in the middle of the week when you have to get up for work? Most of you answered yes to at least one of these questions, and for that reason most of you are wrong! The hardest thing to do, despite the obvious benefits to yourself, is to remember the lotto results from earlier in the evening so that you can check if you have a winning ticket. Well don’t worry because by following the link above you’ll never have to remember again-all the results are there for you!

I love the Christmas season. Wrapping up warm in coats and scarves, wearing big chunky jumpers, sipping hot chocolates or mulled wine and strolling around the German Christmas Fairs that seem to pop up everywhere! One of things I love most is going ice skating, amazing ice rinks get set up all over the UK and they're great for skating with friends, family or perfect for a romantic wintry date. I love the rink at Longleat, it's a bit far for me to get to but I can just play on my carte r4 on the journey, it's worth it. You get to skate with this amazing stately home as a pretty backdrop, and they go all out with other Christmas stuff too - I love the Santa train and every year they have one of the biggest Christmas trees I've ever seen. I also like to go down to Brighton for the rink by the Royal Pavilion, it's a perfect place for a date. It's great at night time when blue lights twinkle and make it all very pretty and romantic. But of course this year I'll be checking out the rink at Winter Wonderland in London's Hyde Park! Photo: Katariina Järvinen (Flickr)

I lose my phone so regularly it has moved beyond entertaining and is now a rather depressing habit of mine. I do not know why I develop such butter fingers when it comes to telephones as I do not lose anything else with such alarming frequency. Possibly the worst-timed loss was when I was in Moscow. I made the mistake of booking my return flight to London on a different date to the group with which I was travelling so had an extra day in Moscow. No worry thought I, I will stay an extra night in the hostel and spend the day having a good look around instead of getting drunk. Unfortunately, I was immediately ejected from the hostel for antics previously conducted during the week and was left with no where to stay, no Russian to say, and no money to pay! There was only one man I knew in Moscow and so I resolved to telephone him and ask for his help. Upon reaching into my pocket, I quickly realized that to my dismay, I had lost my phone. Another trip to Three.co.uk/store for me.