And I'm not talking about £1 a litre– I'm referring to the day when it was a mere £1 a gallon.

Since then, with oil prices the centre of an international feeding frenzy meaning the rich get richer, the taxes get higher and motorists get hammered, the cost has gone through the roof.

Another question.

Can you remember when the £1 a litre barrier was broken for the first time?

Ancient history, I hear you say. Three years ago? Maybe four?

Tax hike

The answer is October last year, when Gordon Brown's latest 2p tax hike sent some rural stations toppling into three figures, closely followed by the rest of the pack.

You thought it was longer. And actually, prices did go back down again for a short while before they rocketed again earlier this year.

Like me, you are probably now wondering why prices have increased by 25 per cent in the course of a few short months (or should that be weeks?)

You might be thinking, as I am, that you have become so beaten-down by the spiralling cost of travel that you don't notice any more.

You just sigh, worry a bit, and stick the same £30-worth in, knowing at the back of your mind that it won't get you as far as the same £30 the week before.

Back in October, incidentally, diesel was more-or-less the same price as petrol.

That's another wheeze the fuel companies have come up with.

Rocketing up

Some fuel prices are, indeed, now rocketing past £1.20 a litre at the pumps (probably much more by the time you read this) and when the supermarkets offer a 5p saving for every litre, as they occasionally do, the hard-pressed punter is no longer so impressed.

Saving yourself a couple of quid is OK, but it's not going to change your life.

And you've probably spent that much, or more, getting to the superstore to fill-up.

If you can be bothered to do the calculation, you are probably better off at the pump down the road.

But is what we are seeing now a case of blatant profiteering by the oil companies and the fuel stations?

Out of use

Let me ask you a further question.

If you use diesel, how many times have you arrived at a fuel station to find most of the diesel pumps out of use?

And, if there is a diesel pump in action, what are the chances that it is selling the more expensive version, now costing anything up to £1.25p a litre?

A cynic might ask why so many fuel stations appear to have run out of diesel at the "ordinary" price but are still able to sell the "premium" version at the higher price.

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