by Fern Shaw | Jul 31, 2017 | aquaid birmingham
Our AquAid Birmingham branch, based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands, opened its doors in 2003 and is managed by the by the highly experienced Andrew Sutherland.
Andrew and his team supply an extensive range of innovative and high quality water coolers and dispensers to service a broad range of customers in offices; on worksites; at festivals, production shoots; medical care facilities, hospitals; retirement homes; colleges; schools and universities.
AquAid Birmingham provides their top notch services to more than 3,500 customers throughout the following areas:
Aberystwyth, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Birmingham, Burton, Cannock, Castle Donington, Coalville, Coleshill, Derby, Dudley, Hinckley, Kegworth, Kidderminster, Leicester, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Newcastle Under Lyme, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Telford, Walsall, Wolverhampton.
A few quick facts about Birmingham – which even if you’re Brum born-and-bred, you may not know:
There’s been some debate about whether Birmingham or Manchester is Britain’s second biggest city. As it turns out, Birmingham is Britain’s second city. Seems to be another case where size does matter: with the largest population and GDP outside of London, in quantifiable terms, the Midlands metropolis trumps Manchester (sorry ‘bout that Manchester, but rest assured that there is another fantastic branch of AquAid that look after their Manchester customers).
Bird’s Custard, Cadbury’s Chocolate, Bournville Drinking Chocolate, HP Sauce and Typhoo Tea are all from Birmingham.
Birmingham has more waterways and canals than Venice with 35 miles of waterways versus Venice’s 26 miles of waterways. The surrounding areas of Birmingham also have loads more canals right nearby – in fact there are still over 100 miles of canals being used in the Midlands today. That’s a lot of water!
Brum, as it’s affectionately known, is one of the UK’s greenest cities with over 8,000 acres and 600 parks and open spaces.
Although the TV series, Peaky Blinders is all about 1920’s Birmingham, very little of it is filmed in the city itself. The nearest we get are scenes that were filmed in the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, where AquAid happily supply water coolers too.
Brummies (natives of Birmingham) refer to Black Country folk as Yam Yams because they say ‘yow am’ or ‘yow’m’ (meaning ‘you am, you are’). There is apparently a distinct difference between the Brummie accent and that of the Black Country.
Wherever you’re situated in Birmingham – in the heart of this water filled city – or further afield whether you’re in Aberystwyth or Wolverhampton, for exceptional service that caters for all your water cooler and dispenser needs, contact one of the helpful team at AquAid Birmingham today.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 11, 2015 | water cooler
March actually isn’t an unlucky or ‘bad’ month at all. It’s just that peskily prolific Shakespeare whose line it is that’s responsible for the month’s bad reputation.
We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Beware the Ides of March.’ The actual quote is from Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar (1599). The warning is uttered by a soothsayer who is letting Roman leader Julius Caesar know that his life is in danger and he should probably stay home and be careful when March 15th, the Ides of March, rolls around.
That said, the quote does reflect actual history because on March 15th, 44 BC, Julius Caesar was violently murdered, stabbed 23 times by a mob of senators who were led by his protégés and supposed ‘friends’ Cassius and Brutus.
Moving swiftly on from all that gore, there’s actually some cracker things that have occurred in the March month. Here’s a soupçon:
2 March 1969 – Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airline, roared into the skies on its maiden flight. The aircraft will travel at twice the speed of sound.
5 March 1936 – The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine the aircraft will enter service with the Royal Air Force in the next two years.
7 March 1876 – The Scottish-born inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, patented the telephone. Look where that got us!
10 March 1886 – Cruft’s Dog Show was held in London for the first time – since 1859 it had been held in Newcastle. More recently the venue has changed to the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham.
27 March 1871 – Legalised warfare – England and Scotland played their first rugby international, in Edinburgh; first blood to Scotland. Och aye!
30 March 1856 – The Crimean War between Russia and Europe was brought to an end by the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
Obviously there’s a lot more that happen(ed)s in March, but it seems to be a very fly-ee type of month, what with the Concorde’s maiden flight and the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine powered Spitfire being introduced! I always wanted to fly on the Concorde, but that’s another story entirely.
So, take heart and regale your co-workers this March with your spiffy general and historical trivia knowledge. You’re sure to be the toast of the water cooler circuit.
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 | Nov 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
There’s something special about making people laugh, whether it’s around the water cooler at the office, with our mates at the pub or in front of a room full of strangers.
One of our AquAid employees, Martin Huburn, does just that. During the day he does admin at our Birmingham Branch and by night tells gags and stories at comedy nights up and down the country.
“I’ve been involved with entertainment since I was about 4 years old, my sister and I both performed in several dance and gymnastic productions at the Old Rep theatre as kids.
In my teens, I got into American style wrestling and turned professional at 17. I moved to the USA when I was 22 and tried out for some of the bigger wrestling organisations. I didn’t quite make it and returned home in 2007. After 17 years of abuse to the body – broken nose 5 times, 2 concussions and a broken finger nail, I decided enough was enough and retired from wrestling in 2009.
After leaving wrestling, I needed something to fill the void but I had no idea what I wanted to do, until October 2012. My mum bought me tickets to go and see John Bishop at Birmingham’s NIA.
I laughed so hard, the show lasted about 2 hours and I was on a journey into John’s perception of the world, I’d forgot about my though
ts and feelings and felt so good.
Why does laughter make us feel better? They say that laughter is good medicine, but why is it that laughing at people’s misunderstandings, turmoil and observations can be so relieving? Is it the reassurance that sometimes other people see the world how we see it but we might be a little nervous saying it out loud because we may come across a bit, you know, odd.
This is when I decided, this is what I want to do, I want to have a go at standing up in front of a room full of people and attempt to make them laugh at the many surreal experiences I’ve had.
In March 2013, I booked myself in to do a 10 minute section at an Open Mic comedy night in the West Midlands.
In 1997, I went to Amsterdam and had a surreal experience and it’s a story I’d told many times. I whittled it down to a 10 minute story and told it on stage.
It wasn’t my best gig, but the audience laughed at the parts that were supposed to be laughed at, which is always good and I was hooked.
Since then I’ve done about 90+ stand up gigs, 8 of those at the Edinburgh festival, performed my debut stand up show “Who’s Stolen my Dream” at the Nottingham Comedy festival and entered several competitions which I’ve placed 3rd, three times at well established amateur comedian competitions.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve realised how important it is for people to have hobbies and dreams. It’s what defines our character. As a chocolate commercial once said, Work, rest and I likes Armadillo’s (one for the kids).
We put a lot of emphasis on work and rest, but it’s important to let our hair down once in a while.”
Feel free to follow Martin on Twitter at @mhuburn
