No, no, please no

Ex pats living here will remember those dark days when the pound and the euro were equal in value. The exchange rate had plunged from about 1.5 Euros to the Pound downwards in just a few months.

The maths was simple, we were getting a third less Euros each time we exchanged money which in our case was every month. Imagine taking a pay cut of one third – that is what it was like. You can’t make simple adjustments to your budget to cope with that sort of loss. A bottle of wine less each week or turning the heating down one degree just doesn’t cover that sort of shortfall.

Then, slowly, the rate crept up and things looked brighter. People talked about 1.30 Euros to the pound and believed it would happen.

When the rate rose to 1.18, we thought there might just be light at the end of the tunnel. We started to believe that those optimists who had forecast a return to the days of plenty might be right.

But no it was not to be - our hopes have been dashed again; that light has gone out. Instead of creeping up from 1.18, the rate has started to drop again. We have watched helplessly as it has inched down by a centimo or so every other day until it now stands at 1.12 Euros to the pound.

It is poignant that the skies have turned dark grey over the last few days because that reflects our fiscal situation – gloomy.

Please don’t let it drop any further. It is not good for us and it certainly is not good for the Spanish economy.We can cope with the bad weather but having no money is a different matter.