IWHistory (4)

My inorganic chemistry tutor was called BEF Fender. He was probably quite good at inorganic chemistry. He might even have loved his dear old mum and been kind to animals. He was definitely a thoughtless, self-opinionated git. We were supposed to have a one-hour tutorial every week but he arrived anything up to 45 minutes late (during which time we were expected to wait dutifully outside his rooms) but always left pretty much on time (which was a bonus). Once day when he turned up late he excused himself by saying he didn't have a wristwatch. When I enquired why not, he explained he had once been walking through London and was about to look at his watch when he heard Big Ben and had been able to look up and see the time without having to make the effort of taking his hand out of his pocket and pushing up his sleeve. This experience had, he said, revealed wristwatches to be superfluous. I observed it was a pity Big Ben was not in the centre of Oxford to enable him to get to tutorials on time. After a few weeks of this I got pissed off and, having waited five minutes, returned to my room. He was quite unpleasant when he knocked on the door half an hour later, despite being offered a cup of coffee and the use of my room for his tutorial. But he was, subsequently, reasonably prompt. The sod ended up as Vice Chancellor of a Welsh University. He should have been cleaning their toilets.