The last couple of weeks have been fantastic and filled with culture!! Last weekend I headed out to Walthamstow, which is the centre of the borough in which Leyton is situated, to check out old census records from my area to get an idea of who once lived in my house. I found out that the house has existed from around the 1880s, as before that decade, this entire area was purely made up of fields and a couple of streets of sparse houses! There was a massive building boom in the early 1880s, which is when this entire neighbourhood went up. There were no records of anyone living here in 1891, but the next census that was taken in 1901 showed that there were 6 people living in this house - two families of three people each. The first family was made up of a 23-year-old couple, James and Charlotte Holloway, and their 1 year old son, James. The elder James was a wood polisher, indicating that this area was probably a relatively low income area, as other occupations on the street included locomotive drivers and confectionary shop employees etc. The other family was made up of a 22 year old woman and her 29 year old husband, and the woman's younger brother, who was 11 - I can't remember their names! The house must have been split into two flats, but they still would have had to share the bathroom and kitchen just like we do. Next door there lived 12 people!!!!!!! I find that astounding as these houses really aren't that big!!! There was a family of 9 and then three other people in that house. Amazing!!!!

Anyway, after I left the archives library, I met up with Katie and we headed down to the Imperial War Museum to check out the renowned Holocaust memorial exhibit. It was quite disturbing but very well done, and I'm really glad we went. They have a lot of displays telling the stories of individual people who suffered or died in concentration camps, which I thought was extremely important in getting people to understand just what a devastating impact the Nazis had on the lives of Jews and many others. They also had some wonderful pictures of Jewish families and friends taken before the war, when they were enjoying themselves on the beach or having picnics - it's so difficult to imagine that these normal, happy people were put through such terror and torture. Well, this is depressing so moving on...!!!!!

I didn't have a whole lot going on this week before Thursday, which was quite nice as I wasn't really in the mood for going out. Just one of those weeks!!! Thursday night was fabulous thought - Katie and I went to go see the London Festive Orchestra play at this beautiful church in Trafalgar Square called St. Martin-in-the-Field, so named because it once used to reside in the middle of grassy fields!!! Can you imagine?! Anyway, the orchestra was this lovely, tiny little chamber orchestra that played concertos by Vivaldi, Bach and Pachelbel, some of my favourite composers of all time. We were sitting just a few rows from the front and had a great view of the orchestra. The show was spectacular, and Katie fell in love with classical music!!!!!!!! I made a convert out of her!!

Friday night was quite quiet as well - I went out for a couple of drinks after work but had to get home early seeing as how Katie and I had to get up early in the morning to head out to the Great Portland St. tube station to catch our tour bus to see Stonehenge and Bath!!! We had a great day, and I'll try to put up some pictures soon. Stonehenge was a fair bit smaller than I thought it would be but it was beautiful and really fascinating. It's so strange that no one knows exactly why it's there or what purpose it serves!!!! It was quite amazing to literally be out in the middle of the English countryside surrounded by fields and to be standing next to a mysterious historical site that's been around for about 5000 years. It's really difficult to wrap one's mind around!!! We then headed off to Bath, which took me completely be surprise as it's absolutely beautiful and situated once again in the middle of these beautiful rolling hills. I did not expect it to be built the way it is, but apparently in the 18th century architects were hired to design the city in such a way that it would be ideal for wandering around and enjoying, and so that it would attract the best of the best and be the fashionable place to be in England. It was extremely English and quite beautiful and I can't wait to go back. The actual Roman baths themselves were gorgeous as well, and you can imagine that they must have been just spectacular back in their hey day. We felt the natural spring water that flows into them, and it was so hot!!! I was very surprised as I didn't realize that water coming from hot springs was quite literally HOT! We had a great day there, and I was so tired when we finally got back that I passed out at 9.30 and didn't wake up until 12 hours later!

Today I met up with my friend Nicola and we went into the west end to attend a Jewish festival in Trafalgar Square and to go see a film. Nicola isn't Jewish but she's hugely fascinated with Jewish culture and history, so she thought it would be fun to check out the festival. We heard some Jewish music and wandered around the booths for a bit, then went off to have lunch at my favourite little Japanese place in Leicester Square. We had a fabulous meal and then went to the Curzon Soho theatre to see a French film called The Singer. It definitely wasn't the best French film I've seen but it was interesting nonetheless!!!!!!! I've developed a passion for French films, and I highly recommend checking them out if you get a chance - they're so much more passionate and realistic than your typical American film. I know it's a little racy, but Lady Chatterley was an absolutely stunning film (French) and I recommend renting it or seeing it in the theatre if it's available. Another great one that we saw was Tell No One, a murder mystery.

This week I'm hoping to catch up with a few friends that I haven't had a chance to see recently, and then on the weekend Katie and I are randomly heading off to Oslo, Norway for a night!!!!!!!! We wanted to go somewhere, just anywhere really, so decided to look up the cheapest flight offered by Ryan Air and it happened to be Oslo - so we're going!!! I've always wanted to go to that part of the world, and even though we'll only be there for a short amount of time, it'll hopefully give us a sense of what the area has to offer. I hear it's quite beautiful so I'm really looking forward to it.

I must now go relax and read my book before starting another week at work!!! I hope everyone is doing great and keeping safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you all like crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will write again soon,
Lots of love,
Emily