Whoops
This must have happened in fourth or fifth year chemistry. The class was doing an experiment which involved the use of a very large glass bowl. The teacher took great pains at the start of the lesson to tell us how expensive this glass bowl was. £200, if memory serves. If anyone was to break it they (or more probably their parents) would be paying for it.

The experiment concluded, it was time to put The Great Glass Bowl back in its hallowed cupboard. For some reason which escapes me the teacher decided to ask a student to carry THE BIG, EXPENSIVE GLASS BOWL to the cupboard. Hey! Guess what? He chose me.

I knew I was going to drop it. I knew it. The second he called my name I knew it was going to end up in pieces on the floor.

So it did not come as a total shock when, after a few steps, the bowl slipped from my damp hands and smashed into a million tiny pieces, which bounced all over the place.

Luckily my parents and I were not asked to cover the cost of replacing it. Largely, I think, because the chemistry teacher realised that it was probably not the most intelligent move to entrust £200 worth of glass to a nervous oaf such as myself.

Possibly half-a-dozen times a year I see myself carrying that bowl. I see me struggling with it and I see it slipping from my grasp, and I see it smashing on the floor. And I cringe.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Tue 3 Feb 2009, 12:39, Reply)