I used a public lavatory the other day. Hardly exciting, I confess. But there was a novelty beyond the attendant asking if I would require 'papyrus' with which to finish the paperwork.

It was that the cost of a widdle was 50 bani. That's half a leu and there are three and a half lei (the plural of leu) to the euro, which isn't too bad a deal, with or without papyrus. And so much cheaper than the 5,000 lei posted on the wall.

Now and then, people quote a price to you in old lei. The simplest shopping could run into millions. The smallest notes were not of paper but plastic film, because they'd have disintegrated too quickly at the speed they moved.

Then the government in Bucharest decided nobody in the European Union would treat Romania seriously and it devalued the currency by a 10,000-worth. Well, not 'devalued' - there's probably a proper word for it - but you know what I mean.

Even so, I feel if I've missed something. Even if it's just a receipt to show I once paid 5,000 lei to piddle against the porcelain.