Adele Adkins' second album '21' is arguably the most successful and remarkable album of 2011. It was released in January and has since become the soundtrack of the year,

Adele burst onto the UK music scene in 2008 with her debut album '19', but her follow up is even more outstanding than that which first made her.

Adele split from an unnamed partner of 18 months before going on tour in America in 2008-09 and poured her heartache into the writing of this album. It's quite a rare thing in modern music, but Adele took on the once popular role of confessional singer-songwriter and wrote an album bursting with emotion, exploring heartbreak, anger, revenge and forgiveness.

I have both Adele's albums on my r4 card and listen to them a lot, but '21' has to be one of the most played albums I've ever owned!

Some technologies have advanced very quickly over the years and especially in the last fifty but one in particular has not been thought about very much in industrial and scientific circles until we started to think about the carbon footprint and the costs to our pocket and our planet. The technology in question is artificial lighting. We have seen a slow progression from torches to candles to oil lamps and finally to electric incandescent electric light bulbs in the 19th century.

For a very long time the regular bulb was burning lots and lots of energy all over the globe and only a small percentage of that went into the actual light. The rest is dispersed through heat. A step forward was the introduction of neon and the creation of the first fluorescent lights. This has cut down cost and improved efficiency so much that the US, EU and many other countries around the world are phasing out light bulbs and instituting bans on sales.

But there is also an even more efficient alternative that is now taking over the market, led gu10 sockets and light bulbs. They utilize the electroluminescence phenomenon used in light emitting diodes. The same technology that is used in LED screens is now applied to the regular light bulb in the form of the led gu10, just like the tech needed for fluorescent lighting is also used in plasma television sets. Led gu10 is a bulb with a bayonet mount which is easy to use.

Nochevieja, Spanish for ‘Old Night’, is the name for New Year’s Eve in Spain. There are very specific traditions that are upheld across Spain on this night. As the clock strikes on each of the 12 seconds after midnight, a grape is eaten. The 12 grapes symbolize happiness, good wishes, and hope for the coming year. The grape-eating tradition originated in 1909 in Alicante. Alicante’s wine makers created this unique end-of-year Spanish custom to solve the problem of their post-harvest grape surplus.

Each grape represents a month of the New Year and by eating the grape, one brings that month good luck. Everyone follows the countdown that takes place on Puerta Del Sol in Madrid on their televisions, the event being broadcast nationwide. After the grapes have been eaten, when the clock has stopped chiming, people celebrate by hugging and kissing eachother before toasting with either cava or cider. It is a lovely tradition which I take part in each year. Why not use your Duvet and Pillow Warehouse discount codes to get yourself some cheap cava and grapes in preparation for the celebrations?

Recently I had the pleasure to visit Dublin. The small island of Ireland has always appealed to me. The attraction of the emerald islands rolling hills and mystic culture I find very intriguing. The myth of the leprechaun and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow always make me wonder whether playing Irish lottery is more likely to give you a reward then playing the English version. As they say the luck of the Irish!! During trip I went to visit the gusiness factory having always been a massive fan of Irelands drinking culture. it is a pastime that I have been known to partake in. Despite their economic situation in Ireland with the country defaulting on its debts you can always rely upon the Irish to have an optimistic and boozy outlook on life. An attitude I would love to bring home. Maybe I will make it a new years resolution to be more Irish in my life. The Irish have a lot of national traits that I greatly admire aside from the poets, artists and writers that the small country has produced. Ireland seems to have the ability for every Irish person to be able to entertain and charm any living sole on this planet. Maybe have more luck with the Irish lottery resultsthan the English.

The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood is located in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is one of the city’s main sights. The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ is the Cathedral’s official name. The reasoning behind the name “The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood” is due to a historic event that occurred on the site where the Cathedral was built. It was here that Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and so the Cathedral was built in his memory. The Cathedral is easily confused with that of the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land. The mentioned Church was built in Yekaterinburg where Nicholas II and many members of his family were executed after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Building began in 1883, commissioned by Alexander III, who wanted a memorial to his murdered father. In 1907 the Church was finally finished, the entire project having been paid for by the Imperial family and private donors. I wonder if they went to npower.com/fix to get cheap electricity for the Church? Tsar Alexander II was killed when an anarchist conspirator threw a bomb at him, killing himself and the later the Tsar.