by Fern Shaw | Jun 17, 2014 | Health and Hydration
I’ve been a bit moany this past week. Seems like everyone’s gearing up for their summer hols, ‘cept me, I’m off as far as my desk; so I’ve been draping myself dramatically over the water cooler and sticking my lower lip out, but nobody’s paid a blind bit of notice, so you can be assured that things are going to rapidly downhill from here.
In full sulk at my desk, I searched (and sulked), searched (and sulked) and apart from the very famous and rather glorious Trooping of the Colour on 14 June this year (that has been a tradition in one form or another since around the 1700’s); I wondered what other festivals Britons celebrate in summer and established that Midsummer seems to be quite a big, fat hairy deal in some regions.
Midsummer has long been a time when myth and reality converge, when deities dance in woodlands and fiery festivities mark the advent of Midsummer’s Day. Primarily a European tradition, different countries have their own unique and often colourful take on this festival.
While the Summer Solstice falls on June 21st, celebrations often occur on Midsummer’s Day (June 24th) – the solstice during Roman times and considered the middle of summertime. Midsummer’s Eve (June 23) has long been connected to magical beings such as fairies (popularised in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), while stone circles are said to come alive with ancient folk who melt away into the dawn of Midsummer’s Day. Originally a pagan holiday, Christianity labelled June 24th as the feast of John the Baptist. The resulting celebrations are often an odd cocktail of Christianity and paganism, dedicated to John through the use of very pre-Christian rites and imagery.
Midsummer Carnivals, Ireland
Many towns and cities in Ireland have Midsummer Carnivals with fairs, concerts and fireworks. Festivities are usually held on Midsummer’s Day or the nearest weekend. In rural places, bonfires are occasionally lit on hilltops, similar to Cornwall. This tradition has its roots in pagan times, with traditional offerings traditionally made in County Limerick to deities connected to Midsummer, like Áine.
Golowan, Cornwall, England
Traditional Midsummer bonfires still burn on high hills in Cornwall, such as Carn Brea and Castle an Dinas, St. Columb Major. The Old Cornwall Society revived the tradition in the early 20th century. Bonfires in Cornwall were once common as part of Golowan, now celebrated at Penzance. The week-long festival normally starts on the Friday nearest St John’s Day, and culminates in Mazey Day – a revival of the Feast of St John (Gol-Jowan) with fireworks and bonfires.
Chester Midsummer Watch Festival, England
Midsummer’s Eve in Britain has commonly been a time of fairies and other outlandish beings. But other midsummer festivities – even those based on biblical events, such as the Chester Mystery Plays – were unpopular with the Reformed establishment due to their roots in Catholicism, and were duly banned. The Chester Midsummer Watch Parade, beginning in 1498, was held every Summer Solstice when the mystery plays were not performed. Key characters in the parade included giants and unicorns, which was banned with costumes destroyed by 1675. Today though, the plays are back, and have enjoyed a healthy rejuvenation.
I’ve hatched a cunning plan. I’m going to build a bonfire around the water coolers in the office, hire a fairy costume and prance around between all the water coolers on 24 June all by my toddlesome – one fairy can a Midsummer make in my opinion!
by Fern Shaw | Jun 2, 2014 | Health and Hydration
Do NOT blame me for whacked out this week. I innocently typed in ‘coolest water coolers global’ (or something thereabouts) and I ended up with *pointing upwards* ‘Coolest Inventions’. But just to make things more ‘cool’ – aha aha – these ‘coolers’ are apparently invented by the Ozzies. No, I’m not talking about the The Wizard of Oz and Dorothy and click-ee red shoes, I’m referring to the land of wombats and wonder – that Oz.
1854: The fridge
There’s one in nearly every kitchen, at least in the Western World, but the ubiquitous fridge was originally conceived in Geelong, Victoria, in the 1850s by James Harrison. His patented ether liquid-vapour compression system, whereby gas was passed through a compressor to be cooled and liquefied, and then circulated through refrigeration coils, is still the most widely used refrigeration system today — not just in fridges, but air conditioners in homes and offices around the world.
1970s: Permaculture
Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, later to become known as the fathers of permaculture, rigorously worked to develop a sustainable method of farming. Modelled on the relationships and patterns found in natural ecologies, the purpose of permaculture is a sustainable and harmonious use of land and resources, putting back what you take out. The end result is a higher level of self-sustainability within communities, lessening the reliance on industrialisation.
1990s: Spray-on skin
Plastic surgeon Dr Fiona Wood was frustrated at treating burns victims; the faster they can be treated the less chance of scarring – but sheets of skin tissue take 14-21 days to grow. Wood also noticed that skin sheets with holes healed faster than the sheets that had more fully meshed, and so she conceived the idea of a skin spray. Made from the patient’s own skin cells, the spray was used to impressive effect after the Bali bombings, but clinical trials are ongoing.
2003: Google Maps
Google Maps actually began as a C++ program designed at Sydney-based Where 2 Technologies. The project was the brainchild of two brothers, Lars and Jens Rasmussen, who originally intended the product as a downloadable app. However, when the company needed venture capital, they pitched the program to Google as a web-based application. Google bought Where 2 Technologies in 2004, and Google Maps was announced in 2005.
All of the above I did not know. Now I do and so do you. Psst! We may not have invented the water cooler erhm … fridge, but we certainly supply the best of … hot, cold, as you like it.
by Fern Shaw | Apr 25, 2014 | Water, water cooler, Water Coolers
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that thanks to social media, the gathering place to shoot the breeze, hang out, flirt a little, or just generally compare notes about how your Uncle Seamus’ carrots beat your colleague’s Aunty Bettina’s leeks in the local produce fair is not so much in the real world at the water cooler but rather through social media sites.
In a global survey by Alexa, as of December 2013, these social media sites took top dog position:
Facebook (colour us not surprised); QZone; V Kontakte; Odnoklassniki; Cloob and Drauglem.
Facebook is the dominant social network in in 127 out of 137 countries analysed.
Facebook has now 1,189 billion monthly active users, but it is growing less rapidly than before (it has added just 34 million active users in 6 months). 351 million users in Asia, 276 million in Europe, 199 million in US & Canada, 362 million in remaining countries. This according to Q3 2013 Earnings.
Active users as of January 2014 on various social media are: Facebook – 1.2billion; QZone – 623.3million; Google+ – 300million; Tencent Weibo – 220million; Twitter – 218million; Instagram – 218million and 4Sq at 8million.
Now I’m well immersed in the world of social media (for obvious reasons I hope) but these stats did jog me out of my little neck of the woods comfort zone to be sure – Cloob? Really?
When all is said and done though, I must say that I’m a little nostalgic. I recently received an article posted to me from a friend overseas – my address – ‘Blogista woman lurking at the water cooler, AquAid Water Coolers, Cambridge’- was handwritten. I pounced on it like it was platinum. A couple of days after someone e-mailed me this funny which sort of brought it home.
So, yes, it seems that social media is very likely the new water cooler, but I think I’ll stick with lurking around my local water cooler to catch up on the latest – before I truly become a ghost in the machine.
by Fern Shaw | Apr 22, 2014 | Health and Hydration
Unless you’ve been buried in a snow drift for the past, oh – 100 years – I think you may have noticed the raging debate about global warming.
Having watched this debate and its proponents and opponents with interest over the last 15 years or so, I came to the conclusion recently that if there are 2 people in a room with no external influences whatsoever, where potentially they could actually get on famously, throw in the words ‘global warming’ and watch the feathers fly.
The further conclusion that I draw from this is that people seem to have to have something to argue about – irrespective of whether they are versed on the topic or not. From Donald Trump through to David Cameron, everybody has an opinion it seems.
Before we get ahead of ourselves though, perhaps it’s a good idea to clarify the difference between weather and climate.
This from Jeff Schweitzer at The Huffington Post:
‘Climate describes atmospheric behaviour averaged over long time periods of decades and centuries across large geographic areas. Weather describes actual local atmospheric conditions over short periods of time, from hours to days. Weather is all about the actual state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, moisture, pressure, cloud cover and other instantaneous measurements. Climate is a composite of weather conditions averaged over many years. Think of weather as a single datum point and climate as a large collection of those data. Better yet, think of weather as a one-night stand. Then climate would be raising the kid resulting from that night for the next two decades. One immediately leads to the other, but the two are completely different phenomenon. And that is why we have two distinct fields of study: meteorology and climatology.’
Right, so now that I’ve flung the proverbial cat in amongst the pigeons with that clarification, you lot can thrash it out amongst yourselves. Me, I’m going to make up some placards, go and lurk near the water cooler and pick a fight with the first person that mocks my manifesto.
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.
