I hope you are all well and enjoying the year with Mr McNamara.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful letters. Well done to everyone on all the hard work and to Mr McNamara for helping you with them. Thank you also to Joe for my lovely rosary beads and the new Galway jersey. I've worn the jersey a few times over here and I always get people coming up to me asking me questions about it. It was a lovely surprise to get the presents in the post.
Firstly, I did make to the top of Kilimanjaro but I have to admit it was very hard. The weather on the final night was so cold, everything in my pockets and back pack froze, including my insulated water bottle. A lot of us got sick with bugs, altitude sickness and the flu but we had a great group and the boys and girls from Athenry school were amazing.
I was very sad to hear about Ian McKeever, what a tragic death for such a great man. He was such an inspiration and I know with all the good work he did for charity and for all the young people he motivated to climb Kilimanjaro, he will never be forgotten.
A lot of you seem to be missing the chocolate biscuit cake and a few of you asked for the recipe so ill write it at the end, make sure you make some for Mr McNamara though.
Thankfully we were not hit by Hurricane Sandy, just the east coast of America. I was in New York two weeks after it and I witnessed first hand some if the devastation it caused. It was very sad to see the amount of damage it caused. A few of you asked me are we hit by any natural disasters here is San Francisco. The Bay Area where we live in San Fran was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale in 1989. Thousands were injured and left homeless and 60 people died. Scientists are predicting a big earthquake hitting this area in the future because we are directly between the Pacific plate and the North American plate. We have to be prepared if an earthquake hits so we have earthquake kits with food, water and a first aid pack in our car in case we get trapped somewhere. Schools also have to have earthquake and tornado kits. Hopefully I won't be here to witness any natural disasters.
The weather here is so nice all the time, so I've been doing a lot of outdoor activities like hiking, mountain biking, surfing and running. I also have a pool, tennis and basketball courts outside my door so it's nice to enjoy them when I get a chance. A group of us cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was so much fun, it is such an amazing piece of architecture. Lake Tahoe is four hours away so we ski up there every second weekend. It's really nice to be able to go to the beach and ski on the same weekend.
I'm a nanny to two children over here, which is a lot of fun because I get to see what school life is like in America, but of course I miss everyone in Cregmore so much. The children loved your letters, so I've been showing them pictures of the school and of the puppy you found, Wordsworth, great name by the way...I'm sure Mr McNamara loved that!!
Shopping is pretty good over here, but it is quiet expensive. We are living in an area that has a lot of headquarters (the centre of a business or the main part of a company) of many big companies, for example Google and Facebook headquarters are five minutes from my apartment. Google headquarters is like a city. They have their own bus service, shops, restaurants, hairdressers, crèches and lots more which are all free of charge to their workforce by the way. I was lucky enough to get a tour of the Google headquarters and it was amazing, you can eat as much chocolate, ice cream and food as you like all day. You have probably heard the area Silicon Valley, this is another name for the area I live in because it is full of hi-tech businesses.
Well that is all the news for now. I hope I answered everyone's questions.
Best of luck with the rest of fifth class and keep up all the good work you've been doing and of course be nice to Mr McNamara.
Best Wishes,
Ms Herwood.
P.S.
This is rough because I don’t usually measure the ingredients, so if you think it needs more of anything for example if it is too dry just melt some more butter and chocolate in a microwave for a few seconds and add to the mixture.
Ms Herwood's Choco biscuit cake
Ingredients: I pack of marietta biscuits roughly chopped 200g of cadburys dairy milk chocolate 25g of butter 1/4 cup of golden syrup 1. Melt butter and chocolate on a very low heat in a large saucepan. 2. Mix in syrup once chocolate and butter is melted. 3. Add the biscuits and mix with the chocolate mixture. 4. Put in a container and leave to cool until it has set. Enjoy with a nice cup of tea!!!
