One of my mates still serving tells the story of meeting a Leading Hand who had served on HMS Vanguard, Britain's last battleship as a junior rating. This guy was given the job of taking the ship's chronometer around all the departments every day to set the various clocks. At every port of call, he would stop for a cup of tea, a biscuit and a bit of a chat. In this manner he managed to fill the entire day and every day of his three year posting onboard.
As he sat on my mate's desk, sipping tea and chomping biscuits, my mate realised the bugger was still pulling the same trick nearly thirty years later!