by Fern Shaw | Apr 25, 2014 | Water, water cooler, Water Coolers
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that thanks to social media, the gathering place to shoot the breeze, hang out, flirt a little, or just generally compare notes about how your Uncle Seamus’ carrots beat your colleague’s Aunty Bettina’s leeks in the local produce fair is not so much in the real world at the water cooler but rather through social media sites.
In a global survey by Alexa, as of December 2013, these social media sites took top dog position:
Facebook (colour us not surprised); QZone; V Kontakte; Odnoklassniki; Cloob and Drauglem.
Facebook is the dominant social network in in 127 out of 137 countries analysed.
Facebook has now 1,189 billion monthly active users, but it is growing less rapidly than before (it has added just 34 million active users in 6 months). 351 million users in Asia, 276 million in Europe, 199 million in US & Canada, 362 million in remaining countries. This according to Q3 2013 Earnings.
Active users as of January 2014 on various social media are: Facebook – 1.2billion; QZone – 623.3million; Google+ – 300million; Tencent Weibo – 220million; Twitter – 218million; Instagram – 218million and 4Sq at 8million.
Now I’m well immersed in the world of social media (for obvious reasons I hope) but these stats did jog me out of my little neck of the woods comfort zone to be sure – Cloob? Really?
When all is said and done though, I must say that I’m a little nostalgic. I recently received an article posted to me from a friend overseas – my address – ‘Blogista woman lurking at the water cooler, AquAid Water Coolers, Cambridge’- was handwritten. I pounced on it like it was platinum. A couple of days after someone e-mailed me this funny which sort of brought it home.
So, yes, it seems that social media is very likely the new water cooler, but I think I’ll stick with lurking around my local water cooler to catch up on the latest – before I truly become a ghost in the machine.
by Fern Shaw | Apr 25, 2014 | Water, water cooler
The image is of John Collier’s painting of Queen Guinevere’s Maying
May Day, not to be confused with the emergency ‘mayday’, on May 1 is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday. It is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. May Day coincides with International Workers’ Day, and in many countries that celebrate the latter, it may be referred to as “May Day”.
The emergency call: ‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,’ is believed to have originated in 1923 with Frederick Stanley Mockford (1897–1962). A senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London, Mockford was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the word “Mayday” from the French “m’aider” (“venez m’aider” meaning “come help me”). Now you know!
Back to the topic at hand though;
Traditional British May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a maypole. Much of this tradition derives from the pagan Anglo-Saxon customs held during “Þrimilci-mōnaþ” (the Old English name for the month of May meaning Month of Three Milkings) along with many Celtic traditions.
May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility (of the soil, livestock, and people) and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings. Since the reform of the Catholic calendar, May 1 is the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of workers. Seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons.
The May Day bank holiday, on the first Monday in May, was traditionally the only one to affect the state school calendar, although new arrangements in some areas to even out the length of school terms mean that Good Friday (a common law holiday) and Easter Monday (a bank holiday), which vary from year to year, may also fall during term time. The Spring Bank Holiday on the first Monday in May was created in 1978.
Now, what has this to do with water coolers one may ask? Hm, well, May 1st is in spring; spring means renewal; May blossoms; blossoms require water as without water there would be no blossoms blossoming; crops growing and without hydrated humans to grow those crops … you get the general idea.
So, should you need water to keep you hale and hearty in order to produce food and rig up maypoles, think of us, AquAid, for all your hydration requirements!
by Fern Shaw | Apr 16, 2014 | Water Boilers, water cooler
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 Compact Boiler and narrowly missed electrocuting myself in the process.
From the article in The Telegraph:
A newly-wed couple were stranded on a remote island three miles from the mainland when a giant bull seal climbed into their inflatable dinghy and refused to budge for four days.
Eddie Stebbings, 35, and his bride Bee Bueche, 36, spent their first three months of married life together with a colony of Atlantic grey seals on Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coast.
But their wildlife adventure took an unexpected turn when a giant seal took up residence in the dinghy they used to reach the mainland.
Eddie and Bee were married in August and returned to the windswept island where they are wildlife wardens just in time for the seal pupping season.
Eddie said: “One morning in October the seal flopped itself into the boat.
“It refused to budge for four days and was at one point joined by another seal.
“He was about four times my weight, eight foot long and clearly not worried about people coming close to him.”
The couple chose to spend their honeymoon on one of Britain’s most remote islands, which they shared with over 400 adult seals.
Have another gander at the weight of this cubby chappy! Almost makes me feel good about my weight issues. (Then again, I don’t live in the icy cold water which would justify extra warm keeping blubber).
*Sigh* Oh well, guess I’ll just take another schlurp of my coffee … and where’s that Danish that I asked for?!
Photo: CATERS
by Fern Shaw | Mar 26, 2014 | water cooler, Water Coolers
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 colour.
‘What ho?’ says I to Larry.
‘None of your beeswax’, came the reply.
Talk about waving a red herring in front of a carnivorous cat! I was off my stool and after Larry quicker than a flash.
Anyhow, after a minor scuffle, some choice language and a dressing down from the powers, I uncovered the hidden gems.
So, with much fanfare, a dash of facts and much hulabalooing, allow me to introduce AquAid’s latest little water cooler beauties:
The AquAid H-Duo is stylish, affordable, comes in a range of colours to suit any decor and offers unlimited amounts of both boiling and chilled filtered water.
Designed especially for the UK market, the model sits on your work surface and fits neatly under all overhead kitchen and office cupboards. As part of the package AquAid offers the complete service. WE do the installation, WE change the filters and in that rare event anything should go wrong, WE offer a guaranteed next-working day service call out.
What colours does the AquAid H-Duo come in?
The AquAid H-Duo comes in 10 gorgeous colour options. Silver, cream, black, bright red, dark red, yellow, lime green, blue, purple or orange. Simply enlarge any of the stylish AquAid D-duo’s on this page to see an enlarged version of the colour options.
Do I have to fill the AquAid H-Duo with water myself, like my coffee machine?
No, the beauty of the AquAid H-Duo is that it’s simply plumbed into your mains water supply. It automatically refills as you take water from it, so it is always ready to go, for both boiling and chilled water.
How much water will the AquAid H-Duo produce?
The AquAid H-Duo will produce 7 Litres per hour of chilled water. It will also produce 15 Litres of hot water. We recommend the H-Duo for offices with up to 15 staff.
How hot is the water when it is dispensed from the AquAid H-Duo?
With its unique ‘superhot’ button, the H-Duo can dispense water at temperatures as high as 98 ºC. This is the same temperature as a typical kettle dispenses water at.
How big is the AquAid H-Duo?
The AquAid H-Duo measures 32.5cm high, 30cm wide and 35cm deep. The dispensing spout is 23cm high.
How often do AquAid change the filters?
Our engineers will visit you every six months to change the appropriate filters, ensuring you always have clean, filtered water available.
Is the AquAid H-Duo difficult to operate?
The AquAid H-Duo has a state of the art touch screen panel. To dispense water, you simply choose whether you would like hot or cold water.
How do I clean it?
Simply wipe the AquAid H-Duo down with a damp cloth. The drip tray can be removed and cleaned separately.
It is energy efficient?
The AquAid H-Duo has an energy efficient, CFC-free cold water system and a powerful hot water system, yet both cost as little as 10-15p per day to run.
There you have it. Aren’t they grand? If you’d like one, contact AquAid and let us know which one of these little wonders you’d like. We’ll be happy to help.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 26, 2014 | Health and Hydration, water cooler, Water Coolers
I know, I know, I know. I do carry on (and on and on) about how very crucial water is, and I blog about it from every conceivable and (some rather inconceivable) perspectives, but the fact is – it is.
Putting this all into perspective:
Apparently a water pipe burst near my hoos the other day. Turned on the tap to wash the dishes and all I got was this rather impressive gurgling and rather scary pipe rattling. Then, my tap turned into a Spitting Cobra of brown muck. Then, nothing. It was the weekend. None of the neighbours had water either. So;
- no water to drink;
- no water to make a cuppa (which was my next task after doing the dishes);
- no water to wash my hands (bit of a clean hands phobic, me);
- no flushing the loo;
- no water to shower with, which meant I grunged my way into work on Monday (don’t imagine it, it was pretty awful);
- no water to give to the animals; never mind considering watering the plants. Just NO WATER.
Of course, for me as a town dweller, worst case scenario was that I hoof it off to a friend or the shops and buy bottled water. Except, then of course, the rather Scottish part of me had an internal whinge about using bottled water to wash my face with – wastage – perish the thought! Also, with it being rather warm down our way at present, I started getting a little precious and thinking about how thirsty I was. I made up scenarios in my head of me classic desert-scene-leopard-crawling down the street, gasping, ‘Water …. waterrr … waterrrrrr!’ then my head lowering , as I sagged into helplessness – fade out. Eventually, I got over myself and realised the impact of having no water had on me, and then it really struck home.
If that was just me without water for a few hours, try, if you can, to imagine what it is like to not only not have water on tap, but no water anywhere near you, for days. I think, then one begins to realise the importance of water from a very different perspective:
- How by you, dear, dear Customer, purchasing your water coolers translating into money meaning that we are able to donate towards charities like The Africa Trust that build life-saving Elephant Pumps;
- Meaning that people’s lives are literally saved and;
- How these contributions can honest to goodness make the difference between life and death and a future filled with that most precious of necessities – hope.
After this little brain-stretching exercise, I truly am going to be a lot less whiny about having no water and how ‘badly’ it affected me.
Perspective – she’s a bit of a meany.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 17, 2014 | water cooler
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 blogista (moi) gets to call the shots (on this page anyway) and I like to talk about things British.
Gurning
The Egremont Crab Fair – one of England’s weirder events – gets its name from crab apples rather than the marine variety. It started back in the 13th century when the Lord of the Manor gave away crab apples to the populace. In fact, to this day, the Parade of the Apple Cart, where apples are thrown into the crowds on the Main Street, is part of the fair. There are a host of other non-mechanized, traditional events – greasy pole climbing; a pipe smoking contests; a talent show; Cumberland wrestling; a hounds trail. But let’s face it, the reason Egremont makes the news every year is the gurning competition. Home of the Gurning World Championships.
Gurning, involves a rubber-faced skill that is totally bizarre and unique to this part of England. Contestants put their heads through horse collar or braffin while they create the ugliest, most grotesque faces they can manage. A certain amount of skill is involved but a lot of beer and a certain amount of toothlessness probably has an impact as well. Celebrities occasionally have a go and the national news usually features the winning gurners.
Worm Charming
Worm charming is a way to of attracting earthworms from the ground. Many do it to collect bait for fishing. But there are also those who do it as sort of sport. The village of Willaston, near Nantwich, Cheshire is the place where since 1980 the annual World Championships have been organized. The competition was actually initiated by local man Tom Shufflebotham who on the 5th of July, 1980 charmed 511 worms from the ground in only half an hour. The competition has 18 rules. A few are – Each competitor competes in the 3 x 3 metre area. Music of any kind can be used to charm worms out of the ground. No drugs can be used. Water is considered to be a drug (stimulant).
Bog snorkelling
Yes indeed, you read correctly, bog snorkelling. Basically participants dive into a bog, wearing goggles, a pair of flippers and a snorkel, they then proceed to race each other along a 120ft trench filled with mud. Held every year, the participants come from all over the world and raise lots of money for charity.
Legend has it that bog snorkelling was invented near Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales in 1976. It began, as great things often do, over a pint (or probably several) at The Neuadd Arms public house. Mr Gorden Green is said to have had the idea whilst talking to some of the locals.
We promise that when we source your water for your water coolers that we don’t throw the sourcers (or should that be sourcerers – hyuk) into various bogs to see how they manage in water. AquAid’s water comes from three different sources throughout the U.K.
We also don’t make anyone from any of your convenient AquAid branches charm worms or try their hand (face) at gurning.
Promise.
