[Tutor] unpacking PyTime

[Etrade Griffiths]

Hi

I am using the Win32com library to pick up data from an EXCEL spreadsheet 
but am having trouble with dates.  I want to convert a date read from the 
XL sheet into a float using this snippet

from win32com.client import dispatch
import time

xlFile="test.xls"
xlApp=Dispatch("Excel.Application")
xlApp.Workbooks.Open(xlFile)
xlSht=xlApp.Worksheets("data")

# OK so far but the problem comes now ...

curr_date=xlSht.Cells(1,3).Value         # returns PyTime

Not how to get the date (as either yy,mm,dd or a single number aka 
XL).  The ASPN ActivePython site suggests using

x=curr_date.__float__()

but Python gives the error "AttributeError: __float__"

I also tried

x=float(curr_date)

but Python gives the error "TypeError: float() argument must be string or a 
number".  All suggestions gratefully received!