Forgotten password?.....Er, yes.

I'm in danger of being locked out of my life - I can't remember the password.

Am I the only person who is starting to feel that this password lark is getting out of control and it might be time for the clever old IT people to think of something new?

I'm all for having lots of passwords protecting my bank accounts, the more the merrier if it means my dosh is secure, but now it seems it's becoming impossible to do virtually anything online without one. Actually I don't mean one, the reality is dozens.

I wouldn't say that I use internet sites any more than the average person -  I book flights and hire cars; order clothes; download music for my iPod and books for my Kindle and do my banking - but I had a quick count up of the sites that I use regularly that demand a password before I can access them, and it came to a staggering 43!

Add to that the pin numbers for bank accounts and it's no wonder we're all suffering headaches more than we used to, it's the stress of trying to remember all those numbers and words.

Use memorable words, they say, or a combination of words and numbers and then comes the stern warning not to use the same one for everything and not to write your password down in case someone should find it. Er, hello....I'm 48 and most days I have trouble remembering where I've put my car key or my shoes, there's no way on earth I'm going to remember the password to my Bravissimo account the next time I need to order a new red bra.

I've listened to all the advice about not using obvious passwords and pin numbers that could be guessed relatively easily, kids' names, birthdays etc. So, how proud was I when I came up with some pretty obscure combinations and got an online pat on the head as the phrase 'password strength - strong' appeared on the screen.

The only problem was.....the reason they were so strong was because they were completely impossible to remember and every time I was faced with the 'enter your password' box, could I think what it was? Nope, not a hope. Consequently, the 'forgotten password?' function and I have become extremely well acquainted. Each time I press the button, I almost expect the words 'what....you again?' to appear.

So my wonderfully obscure, but impossible to remember, passwords are now recorded in a book that is locked away securely in a place known only to me. The security whizzes would have a blue fit, I'm sure.

I had to laugh the other day to discover that it's not just me, and it's definitely not an age thing, when son number one, the 16 year old, sent me a text from the cashpoint to ask if I knew his pin number as he'd forgotten it.