Thoughts on this tool kit please .

[clivehorridge]

A tip on hex keys is not only to have a set of loose keys, but a modern bicycle fold-out set is very handy. If you pay more than a cheap Chinese price, you'll get good quality and at least they're all in one place, not scattered throughout your toolkit because the bloody elastic band broke!

I am astonished someone with a 100 year old tool set in a canvas bag hasn't got a 2oz tobacco tin full of hex keys , i have but few have much in the way of hex left .[/QUOTE]

Sadly, the canvas bag is all I rescued when I left the UK 12 years ago, managed to get a friend to deliver it to Romania for me, that's how attached I am to it.

All my other stuff, Oxy acetylene, 3 cantilever tool boxes full of tools, 5m x 4m concrete garage, wall full of various service tools, a whole range of power tools and all such stuff got left behind. I'll bet my ex had a field day at the car boot sales! oh and not forgetting the tobacco tins of hex-keys nuts and bolts and various fixings and nick-nacks that us sorts collect.... and bloody hell, all my course fishing gear too, forgot about that!!

 

[Shayne]

Commiserations Clive , i left the full contents of a 3 bedroom house , 3 motorbikes and tools that took 20 years to collect when i decided escape was my only chance of survival from the worst hospital on the planet . With a shattered leg and a broken collar bone i made my way to Wales on crutches unable to carry anything more than a change of clothes . I never returned to the Isle of Man until 7 years later so god only knows where it all went as there was no ex involved .

But theres a lesson for everyone here - if you want good medical treatment in the Isle of Man - call a lawyer and demand to be sent to a real hospital in the UK

Nobles Hospital Isle of Man renowned locally for Killing , maiming and torturing people since 1897 .

 

[clivehorridge]

Commiserations Clive , i left the full contents of a 3 bedroom house , 3 motorbikes and tools that took 20 years to collect when i decided escape was my only chance of survival from the worst hospital on the planet . With a shattered leg and a broken collar bone i made my way to Wales on crutches unable to carry anything more than a change of clothes . I never returned to the Isle of Man until 7 years later so god only knows where it all went as there was no ex involved .

But theres a lesson for everyone here - if you want good medical treatment in the Isle of Man - call a lawyer and demand to be sent to a real hospital in the UK

Nobles Hospital Isle of Man renowned locally for Killing , maiming and torturing people since 1897 .

Wow! I thought I was taking chances living in Romania. Here the NHS is on its knees financially, so all infrastructure is old and falling apart. On the other hand, the level of expertise of the doctors is superb! It's a tragedy really that a fully trained surgeon earns the same as a mid grade schoolteacher and neither of them get much more than about 800 hundred euros equivalent per month.

I had never needed hospitalization which, pushing 56 years old, was something I was proud of. Then I had a problem with my maxillary sinus which needed a 4 hour op. I went private and had first class treatment in a new hospital. It cost me €1,400 for 3 nights B&B and the op thrown in. Had my own room with TV and a nurse at the push of a button (not the way you're thinking!) and very good attention.

It was the same price for my wife to also have 4 nights B&B and a C/section birth of our lovely daughter, at the same private hospital, Euro Clinic.

Not so bad after all, it turns out!

 

[grantw]

There are certainly some interesting stories from people on here!

Clive that that medical treatment sounds like a bargain. I'm guessing there must be some form of NI payments there as well?

 

[Shayne]

The Isle of Man government (of which the hospital is a department) has more money than they know what to do with . The trouble is the gov answers to nobody and so are a law unto themselves when it comes to local matters hence they are immune to charges of negligence , corruption or even i dare say outright illegality .
My Mother was murdered by the Isle of Man Chairman of Freemasons . 3 postmortems all failed to find any innocent reason for her death and so it was decided the 36 separate injuries recorded and the fact she was strangled to death should result in a charge of "accidental manslaughter" . The Mason served 9 months in open prison .

 

[clivehorridge]

There are certainly some interesting stories from people on here!

Clive that that medical treatment sounds like a bargain. I'm guessing there must be some form of NI payments there as well?

The answer's no actually. It was the straight till price at the hospital. At the time I was on a foreign contract of employment paying only my Romanian income tax of 16%. Then, I wasn't paying anything into the NHS.

Now I also have a local contract and pay about 6% NHS, but as a foreigner I can't claim unemployment (which is a very small and short lived benefit anyway) and I won't qualify for state pension.

When my wife had the baby, I did some research into private C/section costs and in the UK it was about £15,000 and in the US about $40,000 IIRC.

A bit of a difference compared with €1,400.

There's good cheap laser eye treatment here too, don't know the prices but I'm told its the place to come for cataract treatment and lense transplants.

 

[moggy1968]

yep, got that kit years ago and fairly please with it. The warranty is shite though. Broke a socket, took it back and they asked for the receipt. So, I explained that after ten years even if I had the receipt it would have faded away to nothing. As the socket had Halfords stamped on the side it was clearly one of theirs so shouldn't be a problem, I says. She says, 'well, you might have stolen it' At this point I took my leave before I really got cross and I have never bought a tool from Halfords again.

 

[clivehorridge]

yep, got that kit years ago and fairly please with it. The warranty is shite though. Broke a socket, took it back and they asked for the receipt. So, I explained that after ten years even if I had the receipt it would have faded away to nothing. As the socket had Halfords stamped on the side it was clearly one of theirs so shouldn't be a problem, I says. She says, 'well, you might have stolen it' At this point I took my leave before I really got cross and I have never bought a tool from Halfords again.

More of a legal matter, but even if you had stolen it, it's arguable that Halfords should still honour their guarantee!

 

[Paddler Ed]

On the bike type allen keys, have a look for the proper Bondhus ones; I've had a couple of sets over the years and they've been great. I liked the ball ended ones as they got right to the bottom of the allen heads, BUT did have a smaller contact area so would trash the heads sometimes.

Oh, and if you do find some, let me know where they came from! I used to get mine in bikeshops, but I've not seen them for a few years now.

 

[Chas]

On the bike type allen keys, have a look for the proper Bondhus ones; I've had a couple of sets over the years and they've been great. I liked the ball ended ones as they got right to the bottom of the allen heads, BUT did have a smaller contact area so would trash the heads sometimes.

Oh, and if you do find some, let me know where they came from! I used to get mine in bikeshops, but I've not seen them for a few years now.

Try searching eBay for GorillaGrip, I found a few items.

 

[yogi]

The answer's no actually. It was the straight till price at the hospital. At the time I was on a foreign contract of employment paying only my Romanian income tax of 16%. Then, I wasn't paying anything into the NHS.

Now I also have a local contract and pay about 6% NHS, but as a foreigner I can't claim unemployment (which is a very small and short lived benefit anyway) and I won't qualify for state pension.

When my wife had the baby, I did some research into private C/section costs and in the UK it was about £15,000 and in the US about $40,000 IIRC.

A bit of a difference compared with €1,400.

There's good cheap laser eye treatment here too, don't know the prices but I'm told its the place to come for cataract treatment and lense transplants.

Hi Clive,
that is very cheap indeed, my neighbour here in Ireland had to give £90,000 for a bypass privately here in Ireland, because the state funded health service tends to let you die or become utterly terminal before they will operate or treat you be it cancer, heart disease or whatever. Oh and when they do operate or treat, lets just say competence is a low point!
And we pay 10% of net income towards it, on top of that even if treated publically you have to contribute towards your stay in hospital if you aren't disabled or long term on benefits. I have another friend who had to give up farming to be able to get his daughter treated for some kind of liver problem as he couldn't buy medical insurance for her after diagnosis and it would have cost 20k a year to keep her alive if he wasn't unemployed.
If you want another example, the girl who used to help me here with horses broke her collar bone a couple years ago at home and had to give 200 for her A+E fees, quite a lot when you are working part time for 150 a week!

Just out of curiosity, your 16% income tax, is that flat rate? I'm paying 52% while the big companies pay between 2 and 10% on their multi million profits?