Give us a really random or surprise fact about yourself!

Hi everybody!

I'd call myself a new member but I've actually been hanging around a while! I've been catching up with the posts and the conversations with a lot of interest but I think now it's time I joined in the fun. So here I am! My name's Maria. I'm a mum of one and my partner and I live in the West Midlands with our baby boy.

I'm looking forward to getting to know a lot of you here. You all seem like a fun little group. So as we're all getting to know each other I thought it would be interesting to know a fact about yourselves. It could be something weird, random or totally unexpected.

I'll start with mine - I have a surname that's a well known word but nobody ever believes it's my real surname. I so wish I could say what it was but because of privacy I can't but it's something that's very well-known but as a name, it's incredibly unusual. I'm not ashamed of it - quite the opposite in fact. The actual sound and meaning of my name is so beautiful but I have to say - it's caused me a lot of trouble! A lot of people think I'm making it up or just messing. I've had warnings from Facebook about using my real name and not a pseudonym. So I spend half my life trying to convince people that my name is really my name! And of course it's a real talking point at interviews. I'm sure I sometimes get invited to interviews so they can see whose the person with the odd name! Luckily my son has his dad's surname which is just as nice but very 'normal'. So he won't have any problems!

So let's hear something about YOU!!!