Welcome To Our Blog

Welcome to our Blog

Here we will keep you up to date on all things water related.

Silly Season Humour

We all know that the December month just lends itself towards often bizarre and excessive silly behaviour and the corny jokes about Father Christmas, reindeer, Santa Claus and decorations abound. I, for one, have a particular fondness for the ultimate corny joke....

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Water in Rituals

“Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.” ~ Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Canticle of the Sun circa 1225. I think I’ve detailed about how all-encompassing water is, whether it’s in our daily lives, daily usage...

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Why does Water float in Space?

I’ve had a look at a number of NASA astronauts in space clips and my favourites are always those when you see water globules floating around. The only astronaut sequence that doesn’t involve some inanimate object floating around that I enjoy has to be when Howie (Big...

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Water and Air Travel

We should all know by now that keeping hydrated is one of the givens whilst travelling – it really is one of the simplest ways to combat fatigue, puffiness (everywhere where it shouldn't be), jet lag and generally feeling like you've partied with a roving band of...

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Water Cooler Wonder – Maps

I read this article a while ago: *‘US-born neuroscientist John O'Keefe has jointly won the 2014 Nobel Prize for medicine for discovering the brain's navigation system. Is it any surprise then that he loves Ordnance Survey maps, writes Luke Jones. O'Keefe came to the...

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Water Cooler Wonder – Guy Fawkes

Remember remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot ... and if you don’t recognise or remember this rhyme, I have to ask, where have you been for the – oh, last hundred years or so? I’ve...

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Watery Books

Recently a real and FB friend posted something on my page about listing your top 10 books to read ever or that had a huge influence on your life. Now as a complete and utter bookworm, believe it or not, I was stumped. A wee bit ironic, that – a wordsmith / blogista...

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Water Cooler Shenanigans

As you may have gathered by now, I spend an inordinate amount of time water cooling. This doesn’t mean cooling by water (although this does play a part if you get what I mean, kind of, sort of) but rather that I lurk a lot at our office water cooler. Before you get...

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Water, Tides and the Moon

I am sorry to bring you yesterday’s news, but it’s possible that you weren’t aware of the event, so there’s that. This is what it was – there was a total lunar eclipse yesterday. There it was …. and … it’s gone. Apparently, it was a Blood Moon (which should please all...

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Water and Blubbing

The giblets in our family were brought up with that stiff upper lip type of manner. No unnecessary emotion, no displays of passion and most definitely no blubbing = crying. Tears were not on. Of course if you were physically hurt (hurt equating to you being starkers...

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Mind Blowing Water and Energy Inventions

I believe that you will have gathered by now that I’m a pretty huge proponent of The Africa Trust. I may blather on about it, but please, pick one of numerous reasons, not in the least the fact that thanks an incredibly hard working team, potable water is brought to...

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Water & Spiders

Yes, it’s come to that. I’m addressing my fears. I know I’m probably one of millions of arachnophobes the world over, but when it comes to this particular fear, I’m only really interested in how it applies to me. And in case you were wondering as to why there’s a...

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From Nature – Chocolate

I’ve just blogged about ginger. Prior to that I blogged about garlic. These were all for a series to do with spices and herbs from nature that actually have the most incredible medicinal benefits almost irrespective of the form that you ingest them in. In the ginger...

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From Nature – Ginger

I always find it fascinating how certain words have certain connotations – e.g. the word ginger. Go on, say it aloud – “Ginger!” What’s the first thing that comes to mind? Hair colour of a much maligned set of people (with a rather amazing DNA sequence I might add)?...

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Autumn at the Water Cooler

Summer is winding down to a close – we’ve all had (hopefully) our summer hols, gloried in our blooming gardens and green spaces, watered the lawn, rejoiced in the warm temperatures and generally had a jolly good old time. Now late summer progresses into autumn and...

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From Nature – Garlic

Our local whizz, Shelly, just added a page about healthy water drinks ideas, all containing a herb or spice that packs a power punch of health, with the added bonus of tasting good too. Then there was a mention on social media about the incredible healing powers of...

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For Crying in a Bucket

So you know too: The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to...

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Slumping at the Water Cooler

I’ve hit a bit of creative burnout, people. Happens to the best of us. It may have something to do with that inevitable, eventual information overload, or the hailstorm I slid through yesterday, or the fact that I’ve not been getting my full 6 hours sleep a night. Who...

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More Dare to Care Facts about Water

Seeing as I’ve done more intensive online research for blogging this week than a mole trying to tunnel through concrete, I’m taking my foot off the proverbial accelerator pedal and doing a gentle segue into a few fun water facts: Human blood is 83% water.  Now I...

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The Nervous Nellie and the Water Fountain

This is not, as one might deduce from the heading, a blog about an elephant and a free-standing water fountain, but rather about steps that you can take when you’re convinced that you’re about to have a meltdown rivalling that of Chernobyl. Close your eyes (preferably...

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Celts, Saxons, Romans – lend me your ears

You should know by now that history fascinates me. If you don’t, I have to ask, where the Sam Hill have you been? I made mention of symmetry in a previous blog – all to do with lots of info about our forefathers and Vikings, etc. etc. In my virtual and literary...

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Trivia (more of) British Style

Last year, I blogged about some perhaps lesser known British trivia. There were the 3 ghosts in a manor house – one apparently being an ape and a cheese rolling tradition amongst other fab bits. This year, we jump back onto that water wagon (all things water,...

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The Funny Side of Drinking Water

I’m usually not one for bemoaning the passing of celebrities and the subsequent hot topic of the day to do with the manner of their passing that insidiously rages through social media thereafter. Even though blogging is very much part of social media, I like to think...

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The Whale at the Water Cooler

*smack*! Excuse me, that wasn’t you I slapped, dear reader – that was for the smart aleck who saw the title and sniggered something about, ‘You really shouldn’t put yourself into your blogs, Shaw ...’ ... Anyhoo, this blog is a little bit about the wonder of whales,...

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How to Hydrate Externally – Part I

As we all know – and as Gravesend especially knows – a recorded 25.7 °C two weeks ago – summer is most definitely here. Being all things water, one can imagine that I’ll be coming out with reams of ‘drink thy water’ tomes, but just for argy bargy’s sake, today, I’m...

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Summer at the Water Cooler III

Refreshing Fruit, Veggie, Herb and Spice Infused Water You may remember that at the beginning of the year, we had a Drink Water Daily Challenge. I was impressed by how many AquAid customers accepted the challenge and threw themselves into the fray with wild abandon....

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Summer at the Water Cooler I

Oranges and Lemons, the bells of St. Clements I used to be known as the Lemon Queen. My Da planted 500 lemon trees and because of the incredibly fertile soil on the plot that we lived on, the trees grew like wildfire and produced the juiciest lemons all year round. I,...

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How to Water Cool your PC

Image ~ Darrin Gatewood I thought my parrot had finally fallen off its perch when I read the headline. Water cooling your PC? Mais oui, according to various articles. Whether you're using a desktop or laptop computer, there's a good chance that if you stop what you're...

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Water & Trees – Part IV

The thickest, the oldest, the tallest, etcetera, etcetera ... Sadly, this will be my swan song blog to do with trees. The ‘trees for the office’ protest at the water cooler is being disbanded. Suffice to say it involved some choice language, some sawed through hemp...

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Have Water, Will Travel

or Where will you travel to on your summer hols? I’ve always thought that I’m pretty knowledgeable when it comes to general knowledge.  Especially travel knowledge. I already have what I call my water cooler list (‘bucket list’ is so 7 years ago). I do have a...

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Water and Trees – Part III

In Part III (Part II of Part II) here’s a further 5 trees indigenous to Britain. This first tree, is very dear to my heart as I have a cousin named Rowan. Funnily enough, the sub-heading of the tree and his personality are not that far apart – he’s a complete maverick...

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The Watery Fern Moss

As I think we’ve pretty much established by now, I’ve a wide range of things that fascinate me, and a lot of my fascination has to do with Mum Nature. I specify la Mama Nature, and don’t just say nature, because nature can mean how organisms and beings (like us for...

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Clever Water

Photographer ~Jim Wilson/The New York Times “Who’s a clever water then? Aw, go on, who’s a clever water then?’’ I haven’t gone barmy, (I think my level of barmy has long since been established), I’m referring to this little marvel: ‘*A lemon tree springs from the soil...

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Water Coolest Inventions

Do NOT blame me for whacked out this week. I innocently typed in ‘coolest water coolers global’ (or something thereabouts) and I ended up with *pointing upwards* ‘Coolest Inventions’. But just to make things more ‘cool’ – aha aha – these ‘coolers’ are apparently...

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Underground Water in Africa

As you know, I tend to blather on a little about water. Especially drinking water.  Clean, fresh drinking water in Africa, where millions of people don’t have access to the life giving stuff as we do. It all seems a bit negative, but that isn’t really the case. I came...

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The Africa Trust – Update May 2014

The Africa Trust – Update May 2014

Country Programmes Zimbabwe The bananas for fees project has nearly doubled in size this year with almost one thousand children now benefitting. This was due to a good harvest and the reduced need for inputs compared to the previous two seasons. It is anticipated that...

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Trees and Water – Part II

Continuing my love affair with all things tree and in keeping with ‘best of British’, have a gander at 5 trees native to Britain. By native, we mean trees that are at home in Britain and have grown in the country for thousands of years. I’ve included two images of the...

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Trees and Water – Part I

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always loved trees. Even more fascinating to me is bark. I’m not referring to the sound a doglet makes; I’m referring to the ‘skin’ of a tree. Bark, to me = beautiful. Specifically, I loved birch trees. We had a large, undeveloped...

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The Dinghy Stealing Seal

I was trolling through the Google avenues when I came across this article about a seal that took up residence in a dinghy of a couple that were honeymooning on an island. When I saw the photo, I snorted my Kenco Coffee  that I’d just served myself up from our AquAid...

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To Duo or not to Duo

To Duo or not to Duo

Last week I was sitting in my cubicle minding my own business, when Larry the Lurch came trundling past with a trolley. The load was covered in one of those scary (but super useful) grey blankets movers tend to use. It slipped a bit and there was a flash of bright...

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Three Rather Odd British Rituals

Britain has a long and varied past – it has been conquered repeatedly, it has conquered others, and it has colonised half the planet. Through its history, many strange traditions and festivals have arisen. Of course, there are oodles of odd rituals globally, but the...

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Rain, rain, go away … Water in drip form

So here you were thinking that the British Isles must be one of the soggiest places on Earth. Not true, say I. In fact, we don’t even feature (lucky us) in the top 10 of most rain drenched places around the globe. Whether you love rain or spend your days dreaming of...

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The Water Debate – Night or Day?

I have this theory dearie, that watering plants at night in a viciously hot climate is better for the plants than by watering them during the day. It’s that whole burn the leaves vs rotting roots debacle debate. Well, goodness gracious me, did this unearth a can of...

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AquAid and the Coffee Station

During these winter months, our thoughts turn to keeping warm and a rather pleasant way to do this is by drinking a cuppa. Today I’m concentrating on coffee. Here’s some random info to keep your brain warm too. Coffee shop culture has been ‘trending’ for decades now,...

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AquAid and the Aquaporins

You might be thinking that Aquaporins are a new product from AquAid. You’d be wrong – although the name is reminiscent of pouring water, so perhaps not such a stretch. *Nudge, nudge, wink, wink to new product division* But what are they exactly? Dumb bunny...

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Tornadoes are Water? Who knew?

Photo: Mike Hollingshead I have had a life-long fascination with tornadoes. Forgetting for a moment the absolutely devastating effect they have on life, limb and property, I think they are amaaaaazing. Just recently I tried my second ditch attempt with loved ones...

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Water Coolers and Dams

I was galloping around the internet (translation: pulling up pages every 5.8 seconds as opposed to my regular speed of 20.3 seconds) when I came across a site about dams. Dams, you ask? As in the females in the animal world? No, not those dams, dam dams (ahahaha) you...

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New Surfaces Make Water Bounce, Faster

Using a Rough Surface to Stay Dry *Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University have found a new clue to staying dry, and it has to do with time and texture. James C. Bird, now of Boston University, and Kripa K. Varanasi at M.I.T. and...

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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela – Uxolo Tata

When I woke up this morning, it was just another day. Then I heard the news ... South Africa’s former president, our Madiba, had passed away the night before. I’m not even going to try to cover the legacy that this man of peace has left us, because I truly don’t have...

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Water Wheels

The water wheel was most likely first invented around 400BC. Its uses were multiple; including milling flour in gristmills and grinding wood into pulp for papermaking, but other uses include hammering wrought iron, machining, ore crushing and pounding fibre for use in...

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The Elephant vs. The Water Cooler

A few moons ago, I was invited to travel with a friend to an exclusive lodge in The Kruger Park. I was to be the site inspection photographer. Bliss.  The lodge had 10 suites (yes that type of exclusive) and was run by a lovely husband and wife team.  Sadly, a few...

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Why Can’t We Just Make Water?

Well, in the simplest terms that I can understand, which means you have to dumb down to my level, Sunshine, is that; ‘Water is made of two hydrogen atoms attached to an oxygen atom. This seems like pretty basic chemistry, so why don't we just smash them together and...

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The Water Cooler Effect

Well, feed me nails and call me Rusty! Trying to untangle the meaning of the water cooler effect, I came across this little gem on Wiki:  ‘A water cooler effect is a phenomenon, occurring when employees at a workplace gather around the office water cooler and chat. It...

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Water is the Driver of Nature

That rather clever, my dears, is apparently a quote by Leonardo da Vinci. Who he? According to Wiki, Leonardo da Vinci was a (don’t hold your breath now) polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist,...

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Radio-waved Treated Water

A ground-breaking new Irish technology could change agriculture as we know it. The technology - radio wave energised water - massively increases the output of vegetables and fruits by up to 30 per cent. Not only are the plants much bigger but they are largely...

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Water Fountains – Part I

Who among us doesn’t just love jetting water? Think about it – from those rather absurd, no-flow control drinking water fountains of yesteryear, to magical musical fountains which lit up in all the rainbow colours and the quintessential exploding water bombs and...

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Waterways of the U.K.

This is not what you think. Me plugging away about ways with water, but rather, waterways. Yes, waterways, canals, barges, the whole patootie. Spread throughout the U.K. In England and Wales, there are over 2 000 miles of waterways and they fall under the auspices of...

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Water Cooler Wonder III

Water Cooler Wonder III

The Small(er) Version Today, we’re going to be looking at the svelte version of the Big Boys. This little wonder is called a Desktop Plumbed-In Water Cooler. If you are short on space but want to enjoy the cost-saving benefits of a plumbed in water cooler, these...

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Running Water and the Tao of Pooh

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh The term ‘running water’ has so many permutations as to be almost infinite. Running water can mean wastage. It can mean advancement in the distribution of water.  It can...

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