Americans I have a new item for our “So Britains call that thing that collection”.
I see mention of garden daleks, and dalek bins in england chats. I take it they are a tapered bin, but find little else. Are they trash bins or are they garden composting bins. Do they refer to a city supplied tapered bin, or are they talking about only ones people have decided to decorate like daleks. Picture links are appreciated with some explanation.
I’ve not come across the term at all, but if it helps, the main types of bin commonly in use in England are:
Wheelie bins:
http://www.trashaway.com.au/images/wheelie_bins.jpg
Plastic refuse bin:
http://www.acejanitorial.co.uk/images/products/CL008-B.JPG
(less common now - most collection services have switched to wheelie bins)
Galvanised steel dustbin:
https://www.parasene.com/images/pi_sml369.jpg
(pretty much a retro chic item now - not really in common use for domestic waste)
We don’t have the garden daleks yet but my friend has one - I can’t find a link to a pic but it’s definitely a compost bin.
Sadly I’ve never heard of the term ‘garden dalek’.
Mangetout has accurately described the bins I’ve used over the last 50-odd years in England. My local council (Rutland) supplies two wheelie bins; one for household rubbish and one for garden rubbish. We put our recycling paper + cardboard in a blue plastic bag.
As a big Dr Who fan, I remember Mickey being swallowed by a bin in one episode, bit not the term being used…
So it’s a garden composting bin that doesn’t look like a dalek except in a very general outline. It’s what I expected. I do see that some people are trying to make it look like a dalek, but that’s not required to be known as a garden dalek. Thanks for responding.
And here’s me envisaging the garden gnomes cowering in fear as their new overlord is placed on the lawn…
Oh, it’s compost bins! - I have a compost bin that is quite dalek-like - it’s only a truncated cone shape in general outline, but it’s quite angular and blocky with it.
Incidentally, we have one very similar to the link in ScareyFaerie’s post, but didn’t pay for it. The council give them away for free (one per household).
In fact, I really should go out there and set it up, instead of messing about on the internet.
Obviously not the same thing but Dr. Who was the first thing I thought of was a compost bin you’d pour grass into and it would start waving it’s arms yelling “Exterminate, exterminate”.
That would be so cool.
See I’d just like a dalek who does my gardening.
Hell, I’d like *anyone * to do my gardening.
At the moment it seems that the Amazon has come to North West London. Sigh.
Yes, the tapering compost bins, open at the bottom so they sit on bare earth, are referred to informally as daleks.
Daleks are hell on garden pests.
Which came first - the bins or Dr. Who?
What’s a dalek?
[hijack]
And what does Pip and Emma mean? I run across that in Agatha Christie’s sometimes-no clue (something about being around the noon hour?).[/hijack]
It’s one of the more popular villains in the BBC Doctor Who series starting in the very beginning and going to the very end. I’ll let you start a new thread on Doctor Who, because it has a large following that can post a ton on the subject.
Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced which is one of the Miss Marple episodes has the characters. I don’t know if they figure into more stories. I don’t think they do.
What a wonderful bargain price on that link. Only $156.99 canadian. :eek:
Pip Emma is another way of saying PM. God knows if it’s related.
Pip and Emma are the words from an older (circa WWI–WWII) British radio phonetic alphabet to represent the letters “P” and “M”. The modern (NATO) equivalents would be Papa and Echo.
As E-Sabbath said, there seems to have been a bit of a vogue for referring to PM as Pip Emma after the First World War. AM would have been Ack Emma.
Darn. I wanted to add something about Dalek bins, but missed the window. Oh, well…
I haven’t seen these in years, but what we called Dalek bins when I was a kid were refuse bins. Similar in shape to the composters above, but with a metal mesh body and a metal lid with a collar to support a large bin bag.