Tom Marvan was a smart kid, in all the top streams at school. Which is why it was such a joy to watch him try to do anything manual. He was nicknamed DAB, the acronym of Delayed Action Brain, to verbalise the sheer hopelessness of any task that he had to complete that wasn't cerebral in nature.
One particular treat that I was priviledged to have witnessed was when, during a science lesson, we were told to measure out hydrochloric acid concentrate into a beaker.
You could see that he was desperately trying not to fuck up this time and even had his tongue clenched firmly betwixt lip as he willed his body to obey his commands. He poured the acid into the beaker, only to have his arm refuse to come back into the position that would stop the liquid from issuing any further. It reached the top of container and kept going.
He then abandoned all reason completely and tried to scoop the escaping fluid back into top of the (already full) beaker with his free hand. I think that, in his panic, it simply hadn't dawned on him to just stop and mop it up. The beaker plainly couldn't take twice its volume in acid, but it didn't stop him trying. Tears of shame were welling in his eyes as he felt the undivided attention of the entire class of students watching on, captivated by his fliddishness.
The thrillng denoument to this otherwise usual DAB tale was when he finally gave up and went to wash his hands. The teacher, who also had been observing this spectacle dumbfounded, had to leap into action and stop him before he started the tap. If he had been left to his own devices, he'd have drenched his hands with water which in turn would have reacted to the acid on his hands and more than likely burned them both off.