by Fern Shaw | Jul 1, 2014 | Health and Hydration
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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 ferpectly good reason for calling it my water cooler list. Here’s why – when I’m hanging about said water cooler, I always get to hear snippets about who’s been where; what it was like – you know, the usual gathering of the masses type confab. So, we got to talking about the destination.
HOD Mrs Furthingstoke’s dream (achieved) was the coast of Cornwall.
Bike messenger Mr Oogle stated that anywhere along the Tour de France route would be his idyll.
Mrs Tibbins said spelunking in Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, in the States, whereupon I choked on my hot drink and Mr Oogle almost swallowed his tongue.
Meeker than the proverbial mouse IT person, Tad, just glared at us, so I’d imagine his water cooler to travel to list is more in line with the worlds of something like the Child of Light PS3 game.
So inspired was I about all this info, I went and tripped the Google fantastic, seeking those – perhaps lesser known? – but still magical destinations and immediately decided that my knowledge is sorely lacking.
Meteora Rock (pictured above) – These massive sandstone fingers seem to emerge as much from a dream as from the plains of Thessaly. Towering as high as 2,044 feet above the lush landscape below, the steep peaks of Meteora are a perfect setting for a secluded monastery.
Monks and nuns have called Meteora’s peaks and caverns home for centuries. Hermits scaled the daunting peaks as early as the 10th century and, according to legend, St. Athanasios Meteorites rode an eagle to the top in the 1300’s to found Great Meteoron, the largest of the region’s six secluded monasteries.
This on my list.
The Crack of Silfra – Travel to Iceland and you’ll find a most curious occurrence on the boundaries of the North American and European plates.
Adjacent to Lake Thingvalla, you’ll find Silfra Crack. Filled with crystal-clear, glacial meltwater, this narrow slit plunges 66 feet into the Earth. It makes for a rather chilly descent, but sight-seeking divers make the pilgrimage each year to dive between the continents. Experienced cave divers can explore depths of more than 148 feet by swimming into the Silfra cave system.
Visitors frequently describe the Silfra diving experience as one of floating weightlessly through space. The glacial waters filter through miles of volcanic rock before emptying into the crack.
This not on my list. All very beautiful and amazing and stuff – but a tad claustrophobic for me.
The Reflecting Desert (pictured above right) – Just consider the Bolivian Uyuni Salt Flats, or Salar de Uyuni, a 4,000-square-mile plane of what appear to be hexagonal tiles. This extraordinary high-altitude landscape stretches among the snow-peaked Andean mountains, and if you happen to visit during the rainy season, you’re in for quite a sight.
When the rains sweep down onto the Uyuni Salt Flats, the entire expanse becomes an immense reflecting pool. The water on the salt flats never reaches a depth of more than 15 centimetres, so it offers visitors the unique sensation of walking on the surface of a mirror — all amid a desolate silence.
The unique landmark is actually the remnant of a prehistoric lake and currently ranks as the largest salt flat in the world.
This on my list.
When I returned to the water cooler to share my finds, It seemed like I’d fallen into an episode of Dr. Who: –
… ‘We’ve no water in the water coolers’, says Tad, ‘so everybody’s most likely dehydrated’.
‘What?’ splutters HOD Mrs Furthingstoke, ‘what does that have to do with everyone not performing at their peak? Pure poppycock, I’m sure!’…
*sigh* Guess my water cooler list is my water cooler list.
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 25, 2014 | Health and Hydration
It seems as it was just yesterday that we were all in the icy grip of winter and then lo and behold, the crocuses peeked their beautiful heads out of the soil and officially call spring.
So, without being able to take a breath, the seasons rollercoaster past us (is it just me, or does it seem as if time is speeding up?)
Being ever practical (aside from the whacked out kooky side) I thought it’d be a good idea to get ahead of the pack and introduce dispel some myths regarding your garden and water usage.
Myth: The best time to replace the lawn is in the spring, as plants get ready to bloom.
Reality: Sowing seed in the spring sets one up for potential problems, as heat sets in during the summer months and weeds compete for space. The best time to sow seed is in autumn, when the temperatures are more consistent and highly competitive weeds, like crabgrass, have gone dormant.
Myth: You should water new plants every day to prevent them from drying out.
Reality: Overwatering kills as many plants as lack of water. It is better to make sure you are wetting the entire root system of your new plant, and then allow the soil to dry to the point that it is only moist.
Myth: To have a healthy lawn, you need to de-thatch in the spring.
Reality: Thatch is a layer of living and dead plant material, including the crown, roots, and stems of the turf grass plant. The brown on the surface at the beginning of the spring will slowly recede into the background all by itself as new leaves emerge. While de-thatching is a common and sometimes necessary practice, it should be done only when thatch is excessive.
Myth: It’s a good idea to remove clippings after mowing.
Reality: There is a misconception that grass clippings contribute significantly to thatch. Grass clippings are mostly water and decompose rapidly, returning significant amounts of fertilizer to the lawn. Research shows that up to one-third of applied fertiliser can be recycled by simply returning clippings.
Remember to not only be kind to your garden and plants (no mollycoddling now, just in case you love your plants to death) with their watering but also to keep yourself properly watered. Hydrated is the word I know, but we’re referring to watering now aren’t we.
Speak to us at AquAid for all your water requirements (we’ve something for all seasons). We offer a range of water coolers whether it is for water coolers for the little ‘uns at school; the office; the warehouse; building sites and the list goes on.
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 | Feb 17, 2014 | water cooler
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 the dry heat of Timbuktu, here is Part One of the rain-iest places:
10. Tavoy, Myanmar:
Checking in at a dehydrated 214.6 inches (545 cm) of average rainfall a year is Tavoy, Myanmar. That’s measly drizzle compared to the next nine places (the top 5 in Part Two). Thinking about it, the Ayeyarwady River didn’t grow to be 1,000 miles long by itself. Mother Nature provides a little help from the skies.
9. Kikori, Papua New Guinea:
An almost equally arid area (in comparison to the following 8 places) is Kikori, Papua New Guinea which experiences an average annual rainfall of 232.9 inches (592 cm).
8. Henderson Lake, British Columbia:
Still well within the 200-300 inches of annual precipitation category is Henderson Lake, British Columbia with a usual annual rainfall of 256.0 inches (650 cm) every year.
7. Andagoya, Colombia:
The ordinary accumulation of rainfall at 281.0 inches (714 cm) in Andagoya, Colombia each year is moving closer to, but still not hitting, the 300 inches per year mark. The inhabitants are certainly receiving their fair share of precipitation, but still not saturated.
The next place enjoys 300 – 400 inches (approx 750 – 1,000 cm) of annual rainfall. Hardly worth shaking an umbrella at, you might argue. This is the kind of rain where your wellies overflow and the odd children or small dogs tend to disappear in the puddles.
6. Bellenden Der Range:
The 340 inches (864 cm) of rainfall experienced annually drenches and deluge Bellenden Der Range, Australia. How do they cook all those “shrimp on the Barbie” with all that rainfall?
British Colombia is not in Britain, so don’t go thinking you’ve caught me out on this one.
Now, how about you absorb all of this wonderful new information and have some amazing facts to strew around your next conversation at the water cooler (from AquAid, of course) when Billy Buttons starts up about how soggy Britain is.
