by Fern Shaw | Feb 14, 2015 | Charity, Health and Hydration, Water
In this month of love (being February) I can hear the howls of protest from many an individual as they scarper to warmer climes, (or just anywhere else) to avoid participating in Valentine’s Day.
I have my own personal rules regarding the day in question – I call it Anti-Valentine’s – but that’s for another story and those of you with a stronger constitution than most.
To change perspective a little, I skipped along the web looking for romantic tales/rituals involving water, splashing merrily as I do. I found some truly lovely practices and rituals, but the nicest, by far, was sent to me by our co-ordinator extraordinaire, Michelle. As we‘re very invested in charities, as with The Africa Trust, which provides safe drinking water to people throughout Africa, I thought that this was quite fitting:-
It’s a folk tale from Kenya called The Fire on the Hill:
Long, long ago, there was a lake of cold water in Kenya. Many animals came at night to the lake to drink some water. But people never came to the lake at night. The animals could kill and eat them. Now, a rich man who had a beautiful daughter once said, “The young man, who will go to the lake in the evening and stay in the cold water till morning, will have my daughter for his wife.”
There lived a poor young man who loved the rich man’s daughter very much. He said to his mother, “I shall try to stay all night in the lake and then marry my dear girl.”
“No, No,” the mother said, “you are my only son! The water in the lake is very cold and the animals will eat you up. Don’t go there!”
She cried and cried. But her son said, “Mother, don’t cry. I must try. I love her so much!” So the young man went to the girl’s father. He told him that he wanted to go to the lake and stay in the cold water all night. The rich man sent his servants to a place where they could watch the young man.
When night came, the young man went to the lake and his mother followed him. But he did not see her. There was a hill forty paces away from the place where the young man went into the water. The woman climbed up the hill and made a fire there. The wild animals saw the fire and were afraid to go near that place.
The young man saw the fire, too. He understood that his mother was there. He thought of his mother’s love and it was easier for him to stay all night in the very cold water. Morning came. The young man went to the rich man’s house. The rich man saw him and said, “My servants say that there was a fire on a hill forty paces from the lake. It warmed you and that is why you could stay all night in the water. So you cannot marry my daughter. Good-bye.”
The young man was very angry. He went to the judge. “Well,” the judge said, “this is a very simple case.”
The next morning the young man with his mother and the rich man with his servants came before the Judge. There were many people there who wanted to hear the case. The judge asked for a pot of cold water. Then he walked forty paces from the pot and made a fire.
“Now,” he said, “we shall wait a little until the water is warm.”
The people cried, “But the fire is so far away, it cannot warm the water in the pot.”
Then the judge said, “And how could that young man warm himself at a fire forty paces away?”
So the case was over and the young man married the rich man’s daughter. They lived happily for many years.
Now I’m sure your swain is not expecting you to take a dip in an icy pond at the common to prove their worth this February, but as far as grand romantic gestures go, this is pretty impressive. Think about it before you go off and spend your hard earned dosh on some screaming pink, polyester-haired teddy.
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.
by Fern Shaw | Aug 18, 2014 | Health and Hydration
I’m usually not one for bemoaning the passing of celebrities and the subsequent hot topic of the day to do with the manner of their passing that insidiously rages through social media thereafter.
Even though blogging is very much part of social media, I like to think that I still have the common sense I developed as a maturing adult – this being about 15 minutes ago. Mentioned common sense runs along the lines of, ‘Never met the person; their actions and behaviour have little or no bearing on my life and if they choose to sway back and forth on a wrecking ball, more power (aha aha) to them’.
On occasion though, when certain famous people die, I find that it does affect me. Case in point is the death this week of Robin Williams.
I’ve always thought that Robin Williams is funny. Not just funny, but no-holds barred, laugh-out loud, clever funny. When I looked a list of the movies that he was in, it’s actually quite daunting how prolific his career has been. Out of those numerous movies, I’ve probably seen a good 60% of them. More than that, I constantly quote his lines in my everyday life, because I think they’re that funny, that clever or that they spark something in me whether it’s to do with word association or ‘idea’ association. Add to this his physical humour and I just think he’s the bomb.
From: ‘Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary’, from Dead Poet’s Society; ‘…what’s the 0 stand for? Oh my God, it’s early!’ of Good Morning, Vietnam through to ‘… Martha Graham! Martha Graham! Martha Graham! …’ from The Birdcage to his genius ad-libbing in just about every single public performance, his effect on me has been quite something.
I also remember from many of his performances how much he used to sweat. I was going to politely say perspire, but that would just be untrue – Robin Williams sweated. I remember thinking that he reminded me of a rather cuddly bear – but not a bear that you’d pick a fight with. Ever.
I think it made me realise too why you would always see stand-up comedians chugging water on stage. Bright, hot stage lights, level of nervousness keeping you at the precipice of flight mode, throat drying out as you frenetically charge through your act – if I really think about, I’m surprised said comedians didn’t have a whole bank of water coolers behind them! Possibly because, if their gig wasn’t going well they could smash the water coolers as part of their act? Hmmm.
Anyhow, let me not get too far off the beaten path. All I really meant to say was, ’Thank you, Robin Williams, very much. For all that you gave, all that you were and your great, big, fat life’.
“If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates,” host James Lipton asks.
Robin responds, “If Heaven exists, to know that there’s laughter. That’d be a great thing.”
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 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.
