The unit of currency in the UK is not the pound - it's the pint.

When I first arrived over here from the UK, the pound was so inflated and the rand so devalued, that simply multiplying by the rate of exchange gave meaningless results.

I needed some basic universal measure that I could make sense of and I discovered it when I went into a pub and ordered my first pint. "Two pounds? That's.. [times by eleven] that's twenty-two rand. Jesus, I could get [divide by three] over seven pints for that back in SA."

Every time I bought anything, I'd work out how many pints it's worth. For instance, a new CD cost 15 pound. Times that by eleven and you get a ridiculous 165 rand. Back home they were just 70 rand. Ah, but tell me it's seven pints, and that suddenly made sense. "So I could have a meal in this restaurant or have ten pints." "I could pay my rent, or have two-hundred pints." [No competition, really.]

I am sure I'm not the only person who thinks this way. Meg uses Diet Coke as her currency. Perhaps it's a family thing:

I have just got off the phone to my younger brother, who is flying out to South Africa next week. "It's sixteen rand to the pound," he exclaimed. "A pint over there costs six rand now, so that's, like, 40p. For one pint at UK prices, I can get six over there!"

The currency is not the pound, it's the pint.