pound to euro

lying on my sickbed, i'm just realising that when britain joins the euro (next year?), this will be the third currency reform in my life. not bad for someone in her mid-thirties! i do seem to get less enthusiastic, and altogether less emotional about the whole affair every time. when we traded east german marks for deutschmarks in 1990, i was part looking forward to, part dreading it. we had our abitur graduation party on the night before the waehrungsunion, and the organisers made us pay for everything days in advance so they had time to pay the money into the bank for conversion. when we all gave up deutschmarks for euros in 2002, i just wondered what was going to happen to prices, and by how much i was being ripped off. i did not feel the urge to keep some dm coins as a memento.
now with the pound making way for the euro as well, the only questions i have is when (before or after summer 2009?), will we still be able to afford a house in italy, and what will it do to my salary level. one thing is for sure: a currency swap is not the big deal some people make it out to be. brits will get used to euros very quickly. as long as they can keep their credit cards and ridiculous mortgages.