Day 33 - Tired, Saffron, Annoyed, Audley, Scared, Hall
Friday, May 27, 2011
So after a night of rain, fire alarms, and drunken mishaps of students we shouldn’t have to concern ourselves with, we’re hopping in a van… about an hour late. Not a good start to what will be a long day.
We were taken on a guided tour around Saffron Waldon today.
The Place > The Tour
The place was beautiful and so rich in history (342 listed buildings), but the tour guide was pretty… mehh. I appreciated the amount of information she knew about the place but she was not captivating in the slightest.
As we’re getting ready to venture towards our next destination, we realize that we’re missing Will….. great! One more thing to add to a brilliant day! At this moment, we are all thinking, “Please don’t let Gerard explode!” We’re pretty much all terrified, except Will, who had ‘misheard’ the time and had to be picked up. Sometimes that boy really frustrates me.
As we’re all making sure we don’t breathe too loudly, we get introduced to Audley End: an incredible expanse of land located pretty close to Saffron Waldon. This tour was much better than the one earlier. As Charissa would probably say, the estate felt like “something out of a Jane Austen movie” and she’d expect Mr. Darcy to come galloping down the green acres. It actually had that atmosphere. It felt like I was thrown back centuries. There were still ducks and ducklings in the pond and horses in the stables… The place felt real. I really enjoyed that.
In the evening, Gerard took us to New Hall, which is a modern sustainable housing area. Gerard listed so many great things about this place that I feel like packing up and moving there right now.
- No more than 60m from a green space.
- Recyclable water
- No street signs - slows traffic - tree in the middle of road
- schools within walking distance
- solar panels
- lower carbon footprint
- trendy, eco-friendly
Who wouldn’t want to live here?
