by Fern Shaw | May 19, 2015 | Charity, water cooler, Water Coolers
‘A wishing well is a term from European folklore to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted. The idea that a wish would be granted came from the idea that water housed deities or had been placed there as a gift from the gods, since water was a source of life and often a scarce commodity.’ ~ Wiki
Here at AquAid, we’ve adapted the concept of the wishing well slightly by ensuring that through the provision of water coolers to our valued customers that this translates into building actual water wells for those less fortunate in Africa.
How it works is that AquAid, who long have a history of supporting sustainable charities, formed a charity called The Africa Trust. This organisation is responsible for building said water wells or, as they are affectionately known, Elephant Pumps. Using donations from a portion of the revenue raised from the sales of water coolers, The Africa Trust have built more than 5 0000 Elephant Pumps throughout Africa, which provide more than 2 million people with safe drinking water. The pump is built (see photograph online in the article) using a modified design based on an ancient Chinese rope pulley system that uses materials that are easy to repair and maintain locally. An Elephant Pump can last for more than 15 years and its design is such that 95% of built pumps continue to operate throughout the continent.
We recently invited York CVS, a Leeds based AquAid customer, to participate in a well building campaign and were delighted when they graciously accepted.
York CVS themselves are all about help and support. Since 1939, York CVS has supported thousands of local charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises to focus on what they do best – making a difference.
They provide a range of support, training and advice to help organisations set up, flourish and even finish if they feel their work is done.
Ruth Stockdale, Communications and Marketing Adviser at York CVS expressed enthusiasm about the well building campaign, “York CVS is proud to be working with AquAid and is delighted that by providing clean, fresh water here in York, we are able to support others to receive the same benefits in Africa.”
York CVS’ decision to participate in this water pump building campaign means that a rural community in Africa will now have access to safe, clean drinking water.
If you currently have an AquAid water cooler and would like to find out how you can go about sponsoring your very own water well, at no extra cost, please contact us.
Via our website: https://www.aquaidwatercoolers.co.uk/contact
Via e-mail: marie@aquaidwatercoolers.co.uk
Via telephone: 0800 772 3003
If you would like to enquire about purchasing a water cooler, drop us a line or give us a shout at any of the above. We’d love to be able to assist. And you can, of course, be very well (ha) on your way to sponsoring your very own water well.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 16, 2015 | water cooler
Charity can often be a word bandied about but with no real meaning behind it.
If there’s one thing I’ve discovered about AquAid it’s that you’ll find tons of individuals throughout the AquAid network that aren’t just committed working professionals, but they’re really dedicated to raising funds for those less fortunate than themselves. And not just for their fellow human beings, but for other beings too.
One such individual is Scott Barnbrook.
A lot of you may know Scott as the Regional Manager of AquAid water coolers or perhaps for his role as National Sales Manager. You may also know that AquAid have always been involved in contributing to sustainable charities. What you may not know is that Scott is also one of the largest independent fundraisers for the Birmingham Dogs Home.
Scott has, to date, raised a cracking £2,612.02 of his £2,500.00 target, of which all proceeds go towards helping to fee
d the dogs at Birmingham Dogs Home. The home also manages the Sunnyside Dogs Home at Wolverhampton.
One of the many events that Scott participates in to raise funds for charity is the Tough Guy – the most recent being the Winter Tough Guy that took place on the 1st of February.
According to Scott, “This Tough Guy saw me get frozen, electrocuted and cut in the name of charity – in truth I’d rather be watching TV with my hand in the biscuit tin but we all need to try and help others.”
If you’d like to find out more about donating to Scott’s chosen charities or just more about the charities themselves, you can visit Scott via Just Giving.
Well done, Scott, we’re bark aloud proud of you!
by Fern Shaw | Feb 9, 2015 | water cooler, Water Coolers
I was idly sitting on Ollie’s desk (a colleague), pretending that his having a new desk top water cooler (the Aquaid-400-Desktop-Water-Cooler no less – nothing but the best for ol’ Ollie it would seem) didn’t make me green with envy – I mean, what’s he got that I haven’t? – swinging my legs and acting all nonchalant when my cartoon vision brain flashed some images at me. No, no Cyanide & Happiness (do yourself a favour and look the strip up), visions of raining destruction and mayhem down on unenviable Ollie, but how very weird ‘O’ words are.
Think about it. ‘O’ words (and by ‘O’ words I mean words that begin with an ‘O’, not words that contain an ‘O’ – catch up! catch up slowpoke!) are just, well … odd. More than that, a lot of ‘O’ words just sound strange too or; their meaning is strange.
Some prime examples:
Obsidian – A hard, dark, glasslike volcanic rock formed by the rapid solidification of lava without crystallisation. say it aloud – Ob-sid-eean. Doesn’t is just sound mysterious and mercurial and other wordly?
Onomatopoeia – This means the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle).
Odd – Such a short stumpy little word and often used to describe much bigger things deserving surely a larger, more eloquent description. e.g. saying that Jack the Ripper was ‘odd’ just doesn’t quite cut it (sorry, very bad pun).
Ovoid – Egg-shaped. I suppose egg shaped is an odd (haha) shape and there deserves an odd (ha haaaaaa!) sounding descriptive word.
And my current favourite:
Obsequious – This means to be servilely ingratiating or fawning.
Have you also noticed how the meaning or description of each ‘o’ word is rarely straightforward? Hmm … in an alternate universe I’m sure there’s some bigger meaning, but frankly my dear, my grey matter’s a bit sponged out now.
I’m going to keep things simple, and come up with a new plan of action as far as Ollie’s desktop water cooler is concerned. I’ve always had my eye on the H-Duo, one of AquAid’s newest cool(ers) on the block /desk / countertop, so I’m off to do the obsequious thing with the powers-that-be and see if that’ll score me my own lime green desktop!
by Fern Shaw | Jan 9, 2015 | Water, water cooler
Strange title I know. You’re forgetting my freedom of association powers – ooowee ooowee – again, more fool you.
I initially looked up bubbles, but came across information about water blisters on feet and hands, which are called dyshidrotic eczema, which coloured me surprised – I’m not into all the medical terminology stuff – so I catalogued it under ‘ew topics’.
Anyhow, I looked a little further and established that blisters are not really filled with water but with serum or plasma, as says Wiki:
A blister is a small pocket of fluid within the upper layers of the skin, typically caused by forceful rubbing (friction), burning, freezing, chemical exposure or infection. Most blisters are filled with a clear fluid called serum or plasma.
It gets more revolting after that, mentioning blood blisters and worse, but me, not having the strongest stomach, I zoned out immediately. As I said – ew.
But what about bubbles? What makes a bubble … um … bubble?
I had this idea that finding out about bubbles would make for some light reading and none of this scientific argy bargy – boy, was I ever wrong. Good heavens, its all equations and algebra and weird symbols – not at all what I thought.
I did learn a new word (WORD) though.
Entrain: to draw in and transport (as solid particles or gas) by the flow of a fluid.
To draw along with or after oneself. See below:
In simple speak, a bubble forms for a variety of reasons, essentially; the bubbles form as air is entrained in the water during the pouring process. The key factor here is how fast the bubbles collapse. This may seem a funny distinction, but bubbles are always thermodynamically unstable compared to the bulk liquid because it always costs energy to create them. The only reason we see long lived bubbles is that there is a kinetic barrier that stops the water films collapsing.
I hope that this has eddicated you all a bit. As for me, I think I’m just going to go back to blowing bubbles or making bubbles in the bottled water cooler when I gloomph it or, using bubble bath or …. drinking bubbly … yes, that sounds more like my world.
Blogista Fern out. Word.
by Fern Shaw | Jan 1, 2015 | Health and Hydration, water cooler, Water Coolers
I personally don’t ‘do’ New Year’s resolutions. Why not, you ask? Well, think about it: you put yourself under inordinate amounts of stress (which kind of puts paid to resolutions like, ‘I won’t stress as much’) which pretty much sets the pace for the rest of the year, which means that your resolution typifies the identical behaviour for the previous year. Make sense? It should.
Just in case you misguidedly decide on making New Year’s resolutions, please, Louise, try to make them original – none of this ‘I’m going on diet’ nonsense. ‘Drink more water’ should now, of course, be a given, so none of that as a special effort either!
To get you going I found a few which made me snort with laughter:
*I will find out why the correspondence course on ‘Mail Fraud’ that I purchased never showed up.
*Eat more nice things like sweets, Big Macs, popcorn and ice cream. Eat less rubbish like fresh fruit, vegetables and soy nuts.
*New Years Resolution: do a series of jazz-flute instructional tapes. Maybe I’ll call it “Ron Burgundy: A Jazz Flute-orial.” ~ Ron Burgundy
*My New Year resolution is: 1024 by 968 pixels!
*Learn what the heck “resolution” means.
*Learn more resolve.
*My New Year’s resolution is to be less prefect ~ Jim Gaffigan
and my personal favourite:
*My New Year’s resolutions are:
- Stop making lists
- Be more consistent.
- Learn to count.
However you choose to ring in the New Year, may we wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead.
