It's in the Bag

was an enduring New Zealand game show which ran from 1980-1992, presented by Selwyn Toogood (punning opportunities abound!!) in which hapless contestants chose from a variety of "bags" to win a prize. The magnificently proportioned pensioner presenter would then attempt to buy back "the bag" with tempting offers of hard tax free cash.

The bag could contain various luxurious prizes ranging from a gigantic wooden colour TV set, a large  electric sewing machine, and an enormous twin tub, right down to the booby prize of a pen. And to top it all the show travelled around New Zealand, setting up camp in small provincial townships, where clearly the lure of a twin tub lured folk away from their sheep fancying.

Of course there was always New Zealand's own Blind Date.....but this never caught on in the metropolitan areas.

And so we move flawlessly from an old bags, to a new bag...

Collected this very week from Her Majesty's Purveyors of Salves, Ointments and Remedies, otherwise known as my local pharmacist.

Not a discreet paper bag as one might expect, containing a small selection of pills, no this was an enormous carrier bag, filled completely with a veritable cornucopia of drugs, caplets and tablets.

My monthly supply had been dispensed twice and I was presented with this medicine chest of supplies.

Upon closer inspection it looked even more enormous, and threatened to overflow my modest medicine repository. Off I trotted, swinging my bag of drugs back home, returning with considerably less chic than a Bond Street expedition. Oh well, I will just have to adjust my Ikea Björkken medicine cabinet. Clearly this is indeed a case of substance over style.

And they do keep me alive, so however cheesy this may be, (but not quite as cheddary as "Its in the Bag"), I am grateful for my particular bag,  It is indeed a wonderful prize.