Ouch!!

The falling rate of the pound is really hurting now. When the exchange rate got down to 1.2€ to the pound we said it can't surely get any worse but it did.

The current rate is one third less than it was. For those of you who ask, "how is it affecting you?" just imagine living on two thirds of your present salary and you will get the picture.

The net result is that my pension this month is down by hundreds of euros and a lot lower than it was the same time last year. Add Pam's state pension, which is transferred to Spain in euros, to that and we are a lot short of what we used to get and what we need to live on.

When Gordon Brown says it may take two years for Britain's economy to recover, I hope he is being very pessimistic for all our sakes.

PS The only good thing is that we no longer have to perform a calculation to convert from euros to sterling -it's even stevens.