I know, I know. Vending machines aren’t really the first thing you think of when someone says to you ‘technology’, but according to Wikipedia, my favourite place to hang out on a rainy night, technology is considered any ‘material objects of use to humanity, such as machines, hardwares, or utensils’ so it really does fall into this category (albeit in a very unlikely manner), and even though you may all be thinking in the back of your mind that Sophie is beginning to scrape the bottom of the blog idea barrel (there’s a facebook status update in the making). Well, let me surprise you!

Now, I don’t know if all vending machines are like this, but there is one very elusive vending machine sitting on my floor at work. As far as vending machine behaviour goes, I am really not sure this is the most desirable quality to have. It kind of sits alongside temperamental toasters and passive-aggressive hairdryers as things you don’t really want to encounter on a regular basis – or to rely on for food, clothing or shelter.

Now, despite this being the only source for a caffeine fix on the floor, not a day goes by when this machine does not behave abnormally, and god forbid that I may need to go up or down a level to retrieve my coke zero. This machine is so interminably unpredictable, that I now approach it with complete trepidation and the kind of nervous, silent stepping that you would adopt if you were trying to creep past a sleeping guard dog with anger management issues.

The thing is, you never quite know what you are going to get with this machine. It’s not that it gives you the wrong drinks, it never does that, oh no no no. It’s just that you never really know if your money will be accepted, or how many times it will go through it’s quite sensational mechanics to get the drink for you (it has a sophisticated, time-rich drink retrieval method involving a sliding arm, and an exit ramp, quite impressive the first time, but that’s really about it). Still, I suppose it hasn’t committed the ultimate vending machine sin which is to take my money (more commonly known by vending machine industry insiders as the ‘dump and run’ or ‘smoke bomb’ tactic).

Anyway, all of this vending machine talk has cast my mind back to the tall, dark and handsome vending machine (no, unfortunately, not an actual man!) I met on the weekend. Staying on the northern New South Wales coast for a friend’s wedding, my friends and I were all starving about midnight and being a sleepy, coastal town, came to the horrific realisation that there were no shops or restaurants open that would serve us food. Panic descended on our little trio. Did we go to sleep hungry or venture out in search of sustenance?

Rumours began circulating that there was a vending machine in the basement of the resort which sounded dodgy, but what a surprise it turned out to be.

To our amazement, it contained a sophisticated assortment of not only chips, chocolate and soft drinks, but packet pasta, sanitary products, panadol…and what every hungry blog writer needs at 12am in the morning… pens.