Simple things

Life has a funny way of helping you out sang Alanis, and I have often wondered... really? Does it? Well apparently yes it does, not in your lottery win or sudden inheritances of a mansion from a long lost relative kind of way but in a hey this will make you smile kind of way...

So you know that moment we all fear when the vending machine has taken your money and the chocolate bar gets stuck. It's out of it's loop, it's nearly there but just as you think it's about to fall, it stops. It stares at you as it teeters on the edge of it's row, pretty much laughing at you as it goes nowhere. You knock the machine a little, desperate to nudge it that last bit to the drop down. The not so gentle knocking becomes full on barging, which when failed leads to vigorous and almost vandal like attempts to rock the machine. But the stubborn little chocolate bar just won't budge.

You've probably guessed already, but this is exactly what happened to me this evening. I don't give up very easily though and not much stands between me and my chocolate! So I get my money back and try again. This time however the machine won't even let me select the same item, it knows that the chocolate bar I really want is sat there teasing me on the edge and it's fancy modern computerised screen tells me that row is now "out of order".

Disappointment sets in as I scan the rows for a replacement to my much awaited first choice chocolate bar. Eventually (as the queue of fellow chocolate wanting people continues to build up behind me and the original crowd begin to get impatient) I select a 'second choice' chocolate bar. The loops of it's row begin to move, the bar shuffles forward ...and it slowly but surely tips over the edge. Yay! Second time lucky, I'm going to get my chocolate fix.

But wait...

...as my second choice bar begins to tumble to the bottom of the machine it heads directly in line with the first. The first is still perched... free from it's loops but entrapped by the glass, and as the second choice bar brushes past it, the first choice bar begins to wobble. There's a tense moment of hope. But nothing happens. So I return my focus to the second choice bar and hear the satisfying thud that means it has landed in the drawer. I bend down to retrieve my prize ...and out of the corner of my eye I see movement! It's moving! The first choice chocolate bar is somersaulting it's way down the vending machine and as I hear a second thud in the drawer I suddenly realise... I'VE WON!!

That's right...Vending machine 0, Sarah 2!

Yes TWO. Two chocolate bars for the price of one. Say what you like about "simple things" but a smile beamed across my face like a £50 note had landed in that drawer.

I didn't even share my wealth. It was mean of me, but I'm always sharing. This win was for me. And being ribbed nearly ALL evening for keeping both chocolate bars and scoffing them all by myself ...was so worth it!