Twice today I have been thwarted by a lack of pound coins

Every so often I am in either Lewisham or Woolwich and go past one of those veg / fruit markets where everything is being sold from the exact same plastic or metal bowls. I've rarely bought from them as they seem to take cash (things are often £1 for a bowl), I generally want a much smaller amount of whatever item it is they're selling and so pick them up from the local greengrocers or the supermarket.

Today though, I wanted to get lots of red bell peppers from the market - they were selling a box of 16 for a fiver at Lewisham - so that I could roast them.

The bank (HSBC) doesn't deal with coins it turns out. In fact I kind of knew this as when I last tried to drop of some bags of pennies and so on they said I needed to go to a post office. So without cash I didn't buy my market peppers bonanza. 

Then I went to Ikea to pick up some of their delicious frozen Grönsakskaka vegetable medallions (potato, broccoli, cheese, onion, cream) and a bag of their sweet liquorice. Sadly they didn't have any of the sweet, only salted (I'm sure it's delicious) and I was about to leave when I spotted a vending machine that had some in. 

It only takes coins though!! 

Staff are very helpful in Ikea and quite a lot of effort was applied by five of them (thank you) in getting the vending machine opened and two bags of liquorice released which I then had to pay for at the self-service till. 

Unfortunately the products have actually been discontinued (wail!) so no amount of barcode scanning worked and I had to pretend to buy the salty ones to let it go through. 

It's a while since I've come across a vending machine that only takes coins though.