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.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 17, 2014 | Water, water cooler, Water Coolers
I’ve been known to disembowel clocks that tick (not disarm ticking clocks – that I leave to the brave people of the Bomb Squad). I’ve also run around strange houses and tightened taps almost to the point of stripping the thread because I cannot abide what I call ‘Lazy Person Water Torture’. I recently saw an episode of some series where the main protagonist takes a golf club to a dripping tap and then his wife repairs the tap – how’s that for an equal household!
Now you know what to do when it comes to your water cooler having a dripping spigot – you just call us.
In these other instances however, I’m not quite sure what remedy to suggest. Have a gander:
When a truck carrying construction glue collided with a bus in Chengdu City, China, it dowsed the street with its sticky contents. Firefighters tried – unsuccessfully – to remove the glue by diluting it with water guns and some observers even were stuck in it. The adhesive was finally dissolved using chemicals.
In the past few years, honeybees have spilled onto highways in Montana, Canada and California, where 10 million to 16 million angry buzzers responded by stinging firefighters, police and drivers. Honeybee hives are regularly shipped to farms around the country to pollinate crops, since colony collapse disorder has decimated local bee populations.
Apparently, years ago, there was a lot of mackerel transported from Devon and Cornwall to Grimsby in tipping trailers and a few times the locking catches were not strong enough and the loads ended up on the road where the truck drivers parked for their rest. On one occasion a car stopped sharply for no apparent reason and the fish carrying lorry stopped just as quickly and the fishy load came over the lorry and into the car.
While it may not grow on trees, money has flooded public streets on multiple occasions. In 2004, an armoured truck crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike, spilling $2 million in coins. In 2005, another truck caught fire in Alabama, spilling $800,000 in quarters. And in 2008, a driver on his way to the Miami Federal Reserve fatally crashed, spewing $185,000 in nickels.
And, my favourite:
In 2000, millions of the popular LEGO plastic toys went for a swim when a ship hit by a rogue wave dumped a container full of them overboard. The beloved blocks have now bobbed through the Northwest Passage to the shores of Alaska, one scientist calculates.
I have this vision of remote mini communities somewhere in the world who now have brightly coloured homes due to this. But that’s just me.
Perhaps you won’t feel as bad about mistreating your water cooler after reading about these rather epic spills. That said, be nice to your water cooler! They do after all, keep you hydrated rain or shine.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 17, 2014 | Charity, Guest Blog, Water, water cooler, Water Coolers
Help in Hearing, an independent, family-run business in Buckinghamshire, have assisted countless people with their hearing over the past 14 years.
They offer a variety of services from a free hearing test at their hearing clinics as well as a free online hearing test to many hearing-related issues.
They also believe in extending their values through to their Corporate Social Responsibility and through their contract with AquAid in having water coolers, have been donating monthly to The Africa Trust.
In doing so, these donations to The Africa Trust have been used to build fresh drinking water wells in areas in Africa where it is needed most, like in schools and villages.
As a result of these donations, Help in Hearing will be having its very own Elephant Pump built in Africa.
The Elephant Pump is a water well that is a modified version of an age-old Chinese rope pulley system and it is built with the assistance of the people of the area who are then taught how it works and how to repair it using local materials and parts.
This is essential to ensure clean and safe water is part of their daily lives.
We, at AquAid, are looking forward to being able to present Help in Hearing with photos of their very own well in the near future.
