Exams Goddamit.

Exams are coming up hard and fast and I am studying like a ferret chasing a rabbit through a bamboo garden with a water feature. Its getting tiring and I haven't even had my first exam yet. Its in two days and its Operations Management and its a headache. But my exams and assignments are reasonably well spread out so its not that bad. I have roughly a week following this exam to finish a Classical Athens essay, then I have another week til my HRM exam, then another week until my Viking assignment is due. So its pretty good. However, I am still stressed and I cannot wait for it to all be over.

Today, on the tram into uni, an old man sat opposite me. He looked a little down on his luck, with a torn cardigan, a hole in his shoe and an old gym bag, but I was busy studying so I tried to concentrate on my reading. However, this was difficult as he was attempting to fix his watch. When the tram made jerky movement he kept almost dropping the watch and I could see he was battling. Then, inevitably, he dropped the little metal pin that was causing all his grief. The pin that holds the arm to the watch. He leaned over, head virtually in my lap, and tried for the next 5 minutes to pick up the minute piece. However, his old eyes and shaky hands prevented this and he eventually gave up. I offered my assistance and, thanks to the fact that I haven't cut my nails in too long a time, I had no trouble in picking up the tiny piece. He pushed the watch into my personal space and said in a slightly desperate tone, "you fix?" I told him that I doubted I could but that I would give it a shot. He said, "oh, thank you, thank you." I told him to hold onto his thank yous until we saw how I went at it. Unfortunately, I had no luck and I apoligised, handed it back to him and suggested that he kept it safe and take it to a watchmaker. He said ok and proceeded to continue to try and fix it himself. He dropped the tiny metal piece again, but lost it that time. He then lifted his left foot, lifted his right foot, I lifted my feet. He looked all around, in the folds of his jeans, in his cardigan pocket, under his bag, then finally he stood up and it was there, underneath him. He then droped the watch.

I picked it up and asked if I could have the little metal part again. I carefully examed it and realised that one end of it was springy, so for the next ten minutes I fiddled and fiddled, and finally, thanks to my femininishly long nails, managed to click the little pin back in, and thereby fix the watch. He said, "oh thank you, thank you" again and I told him that it was no problem. He got off the tram at the next stop and thanked me again before departing. I then returned to my study, comfortable in the knowledge that if these exams don't go as I hope, I can always fall back to my other skills such as watch fixing.