I'll start out with a prime example of my great social skill and tact:
Halfway through my education, there was a 4 month period of clinical practise. I was lucky enough to get the only place at Sweden's most prominent university hospital. After a few weeks, I got invited to a research meeting with all the leading Swedish scientists in my field. The meeting was not for students, but my supervisor promised he would bring me as a personal guest. I was so excited! My first real contact with the world of science! And an opportunity to meet all those people I'd only heard and read about!
The meeting started with an informal lunch. A kind of typical Swedish long, narrow sandwich was served on an oval plate. Most of the sandwich consisted of the infamous Swedish dish bethroot-sallad. It's made of cubed bethroots and mayonaisse, very red and very fatty. I don't like the stuff, so I put it away in one end of my plate.
The lunch presentation was held by the professor who was chairman for meeting, and it was extremely interesting, and I was totally absorbed. Indeed, I was so absorbed I didn't notice my plate had slided out to the very edge of the table. When I pushed my knife to cut through the thick sandwich, that part of the plate was hanging in the air, and somehow, I managed to make a ballista out of it. The bethroot sallad flew away in a nice ballistic curve, landing with a splash at the table inches from the professor. Of course he had a white shirt. The room went totally silent. I wanted to vaporise, but there was no escape, my plate had fallen to the floor so it was obvious who was the assaulter. I made some lame excuses. The chairman looked at the heap of bethroot sallad with a peculiar expression, then at me. Then he said: "well, after this little attack, I'd like to continue with..."
Well, the good thing was that everybody recognised me after this!
