FTSE for you. FTSE for me.

We’ve established that my mother doesn’t like traveling. She doesn’t even like it when other people travel. This is particularly true when her children take to the skies.

It seems that the best way to deal with her stress is to organize every little thing for the person who is going away. In reality this means everyone else in the family gets corralled into organizing things, including the holidaymaker themselves. This could lead you to ask why she doesn’t just leave everything to them in the first place… If you are going to be reading this blog you’ll have to learn to stop asking questions. It’s something I haven’t done since the age of 10.

You wouldn’t either after frequent conversations like this one…

Mum: Your brother is going to Japan in two days and I don’t have any money for him! Do I just walk into a money shop and say “I’d like to purchase the Footsie”?

Me: I think you’ll find the FTSE is an index of the top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. I doubt you could afford to buy all of it. Try asking for yen.

Mum: Oh. Ok. Got it. Yens. Are you sure that’s what it’s called? Anyway, where should I get them from? What was the place you went to get to money changed when you were away?

Me: Umm… Maybank.

Mum: Yes. I’ll go there. They were friendly weren’t they?

Me: Well.. yes, they were… but they are only in Malaysia mum. May – bank.

I would love to say mum then flew to Malaysia where she launched a hostile takeover and walked away owning the FTSE. But that would be a lie.

What I will say is that my brother managed to get his own ‘yens’ and had a wonderful time away from mum.