by Fern Shaw | Jun 8, 2015 | Water, water cooler, Water Coolers
Last week I blogged about memes (see image above); the word itself always makes me a little uncomfortable – memes … Manitou’s …mammaries – but then that’s how my brain processes word association – it may not be how yours does. (Aren’t you lucky?!)
With memes in mind, I got to thinking about what it is that makes people associate water coolers (or more correctly – areas where water coolers are) with humour?
It’s pretty simple if you think about it – when people head off to replenish their daily H20 quota (and another Blogista aside – isn’t it nice to know that nowadays you have a plethora of water cooler machines to choose from – even ones to fit on your desktop – aha – like your desktop does) – it’s usually their downtime; take a break time; time to walk off work related stress; so ostensibly when they reach the water cooler and they see a colleague (or two or five), they remember that they haven’t shot the breeze; told the latest joke; compared footie scores; swapped a bit of skinny – so they break into full splab.
Of course this sharing can often have pretty dodgy and potentially disastrous results – perhaps *Tim in HR doesn’t appreciate Maggie from Sales telling off-colour jokes and Pandora from Filing is ready to throttle Syd from Social Media because he keeps on winding her up about his team’s great results versus hers.
I think that pretty much explains the humour at the water cooler connection. If you don’t believe me, then take a stroll down to your water cooler – I guarantee you’ll see my hypothesis in action. If there’s no humorous activity, create your own. Remember though – directing the water from the water spout to squirt at colleagues probably won’t be perceived as funny.
*names and characters in this blog are all fictional.
by Fern Shaw | Jun 8, 2015 | Water
I’m sure you all have a pretty good inkling about some elements of what your carbon footprint is and have, in your own way, implemented certain strategies on how to lessen that footprint.
But are you at all aware of what the water footprint is for each bit of food you consume?
Here are the water footprints for a few foods that may surprise you – making it high time perhaps to get the most out of your allotment or even your windowsill gardens for that matter.
1. Tomato: On average, one tomato (250 gram) costs 50 litres of water. Tomato sauce / ketchup costs 530 litres of water per kilogram of tomato ketchup.
Tomato puree costs 710 litres of water per kilogram of tomato puree.
2. A pound of lettuce = 114 litres
In general, vegetables take much less water to produce than animal products: That’s where the Meatless Monday suggestion comes in. You don’t need to go vegan, but every bit helps. Lettuces’ water footprint for the UK can be a lot higher as the produce can need to be brought in for consumption from other countries in the winter months.
3. A kilogram of chocolate = 17 000 litres
On average, cocoa beans have a water footprint of 20 000 litres/kg. Cocoa beans are first made into cocoa paste, with cocoa shells as rest product. About 97% of the total water footprint of cocoa beans is allocated to the cocoa paste that is derived from the beans; the rest is attributed to the by-products. One kilogram of cocoa beans gives about 800 gram of paste, so that the water footprint of cocoa paste is about 24 000 litres/kg. From this we can calculate that chocolate has a water footprint of about 17 000 litres/kg.
4. A slice of pizza = 159 litres of water
That would be 68 litres for the flour, 79 litres for the cheese, and nearly 11 for the sauce. Mozzarella, it turns out, is a real water sucker, as is any animal product. Of course, this is the global average, and water use per slice varies from country to country. French pizza has less than half this footprint, the US just about hits the average mark, and Chinese pizza is slightly more waterlogged.
Obviously, you can’t live on water alone (although it’s super important to ensure that you drink sufficient water), but perhaps spare a thought in future about where your food comes from.
*excerpts from Waterfootprint.org
by Fern Shaw | May 28, 2015 | Water, Water Coolers
I was wandering through the dreaded social media the other day and I saw an absolutely beautiful black and white (ha) photo of zebras drinking at a water hole that an acquaintance had taken whilst on tour in Namibia.
Those who are into photography will know that shooting black and white photos can be the hardest photos to take. What spectacular contrasts we may see with the naked eye as being stark and edgy invariably result in dull as dishwater images when shot in black and white. Anyhow, it was while I was looking at this photo (not the one above, by the by) thinking about how amazing zebra photos look especially in black and white that I started thinking about why it is that zebras are stripy and most other African wildlife aren’t?
It’s apparently not to do with camouflage, as I believed it was, but for something else.
There are one or two new theories:
Cooling effect
One is the ‘cooling eddy’ theory. When air hits a zebra, the currents are stronger and faster over the black parts (since black absorbs more heat than white) and slower over the white. At the juncture of these two opposing airflows, little eddies of air may swirl and serve to cool a zebra’s skin.
No landing zone for disease carrying critters
The other idea holds that more stripes may be a barrier against disease, since disease-carrying biting flies, like horseflies, tend to like it hot. Experiments in the field have shown that biting flies don’t like landing on striped surfaces.
Whatever the reason, it’s such a nice thought that nature, once again, shows us humanoids how beating the heat is done. Sadly, despite my request, it seems unlikely that we’ll be introducing zebra striped water coolers any soon. Management snorted when I asked and then (rather snidely I thought) suggested that if I were so into zebra stripes I could always wear my own stripes to the office, as long as I didn’t pitch up wearing my summer zebra striped onesie.
by Fern Shaw | May 25, 2015 | Water
Before you start hissing like an old boiler at the use of the word ‘cacti’ (pl), I’ll remind you that it is correct. It is a cactus and many cacti.
Anyhow, the point of this blog from your (occasionally) friendly blogista, Fern, is that although I’ve never been a fan of cacti – this derived from having many childhood occasions of either being pricked by their thorns or having fallen into a patch of them, or having a cluster of needle-like, fine blond hair-like thorns stuck into my fingers, toes, feet and having to have the patience of Job and the eye of an hawk trying to get the little ***bleep**** out when you couldn’t even see them with the naked eye, but every time you brushed a finger against a surface it hurt like blazes …
….
Okay, I’m back. What I was trying to say is that even something as mean as a cactus, growing as it does in sometimes the most hostile of conditions – almost zero rain fall, boiling hot sun day in and day out; in spite of all of these conditions – the cactus manages to come up with a plan to store water in order to survive.
You’ll find with most cacti that they don’t have leaves to catch much needed water so they’ve adapted by spreading their roots far and wide in order to catch underground water from the occasional rainfall in their natural habitats.
Some types of cacti can store up to as much as 760 litres of water. Yep, you read that right – seven hundred and sixty litres of water! So, although the cactus may not be everybody’s favourite plant – all those flipping thorns – they are without doubt one of the most useful plants of the natural world. Their uses are multitude and many cacti are edible, case in point being the Prickly Pear, which I’ve actually eaten. They’re quite delicious and the sap from the pads repels mosquitoes and is a remedy for minor cuts and burns.
So if you’re ever stuck out in some arid, hot and waterless environment, just look to the cactus for a source of water, food and healing properties all in one plant. Think of it as an out of the office – that’s waaaay out of the office – water cooler station.
Just watch out for those dam-nee thorns.
by Fern Shaw | May 19, 2015 | Health and Hydration, Water
Living in South Africa as *I do, but having lived in the U.K. for a number of years, I’m often struck by the differences when it comes to barbecuing in the U.K. versus braaing in South Africa.
One needs to understand that to a large proportion of South Africans, braaing is as essentially South African as going down to the local pub is to a Brit. It transcends cultures, ages, gender – it is the definitive South African past time. Braaing is taken so seriously that there is even a national day set aside for it. This day is really a public holiday – Heritage Day, 24 September – but in typical South African style, this has morphed into National Braai Day. Yep, we take braaing that seriously.
Some indications that a BBQ is not a Braai:
- In South Africa we braai pretty much all year round.
- If there is a way to make a fire and there is some type of grid to cook meat or fish or breakfast on, we will braai.
- There are braai competitions that run from small towns’ right through to a reality television programme where contestants are put through six weeks of gruelling challenges braaing everything from bread to puddings. Yep, really.
Braaing is pretty much a domain of the male in South Africa. Experience has taught me that when my family braai at home, the rules are clear: I’m not allowed to touch the braai, not allowed to light the fire and certainly not allowed to touch the meat. I am salad or sides regulated only.
The only time I’m allowed to encroach on this domain is when we’re having chicken on the braai. This is due to my secret recipe Chicken Marinade (a traditional South African recipe passed on from my Gran) which I’m encouraged to make. The funniest thing about this delicious marinade is that it has the most basic of ingredients: – tomato sauce (ketchup), fresh garlic and Worcestershire sauce – and it’s a total hit with everybody!
Other than the amazing marinade, the only other braai domain I’ve been allowed to commandeer are the refreshments. Braai time in our summer months can reach as high as 42°C, and as I believe there is more to quenching my thirst than with an icy cold beer, I have a few beat-the-heat and thirst quenching braai cocktails and mocktails in my repertoire.
I like my liquid refreshments to be pretty as all get out; colourful and very girlie – the more a cocktail tastes like a soft drink, and looks all Island style – the better.
My current favourite summer cocktail at the braai is The Watering Hole:
Ingredients
- Watermelon
- Vodka
- Sprite Zero
- A few Limes or Lime juice
- Lots of ice
Method: Scrape the flesh out of the watermelon, discarding the pips; add the vodka; a dash of lime; top up with Sprite Zero and lots of ice.
If you’re feeling more communally minded, you could always pour your combined ingredients back into your watermelon half, add straws and that’ll complete your ‘watering hole’ or; you can pour into chilled glasses, add garnish, a cocktail umbrella or two and heat beating hydration is on track.
Although the ice, fruit juice and heck, even the alcohol in the cocktails definitely contribute towards the water quotient of your drink, it’s always a sensible (tasty cocktails, hot summer’s day – sensible?) idea to match each cocktail drunk with a glass of water. Not only will the water keep you hydrated, but it’ll also help to keep you from drinking your cocktails like soft drinks and suffering from a bit of hangover-it is – a not so rare side effect of a braai.
Cheers everybody!
*Shelly Crawford heads up the AquAid Africa office in South Africa.
by Fern Shaw | May 7, 2015 | Water
Quite some time ago, I wrote a blog about chocolate – and all its health benefits. Yep, you read correctly – all chocolate’s health benefits. Go and have a squiz and be amazed.
So, this Easter, I was going to write more (as promised) about the origins of chocolate and in particular, chocolate Easter eggs.
Because I’m a bit of an Easter time junkie, I was slightly carried away with talking about all other things Easter – hot cross buns, egg painting, Greek Lamb (nom!) and I ran out of time.
Now Easter has come and gone, and I’m all like the White Rabbit, “Oh my fur and whiskers! I’m late, I’m late I’m late!” thinking now that I never did write that blog about the wonderful topic of chocolate. So, while we’re still in the month of April, let’s talk chocolate!
Chocolate has an incredibly interesting and complex history, but for our purposes, we’re going to keep that rather lengthy part brief. Initially, chocolate was really only affordable for royalty and the wealthy. Then the Age of the Industrial Revolution brought steam-powered engines to speed the processing of the bean, which then made chocolate more affordable for the masses.
Initially, eating (actual) eggs was not allowed by the church during the week leading up to Easter.
So any eggs laid that week were saved and decorated to make them ‘Holy Week eggs’, then given to children as gifts.
Victorians adapted the tradition with satin covered cardboard eggs filled with Easter gifts.
The first chocolate eggs were solid and a paste was used made from ground roasted cacao bean. Germany and France were the first to produce these, which were apparently bitter and hard, but these were quickly followed by the rest of Europe with the eggs being hollowed out.
By the turn of the 19th century the discovery of the modern chocolate making process and improved mass manufacturing methods meant that the hollow moulded egg was the most popular gift for Easter, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s that this was established world-wide.
So, now you know where your chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies originate from!
P.S. In case you were wondering about the title – it describes both a very angst filled 1992 movie as well as the fact that it apparently takes around 1 200 litres of water to produce a pound of chocolate. That’s a lot of water.
Hmm, maybe you should rather just drink water? Orrrr … perhaps not.
