Nobody here but us weirdos

The name of our lifestyle block tends to turn a few heads, and if people are perceptive, it should be a good early warning about the inhabitants. We needed a business name to register the farm with IRD, and it seemed a bit naff to use our surname and add "partnership" or something similar. Everyone does that, and we're not everyone.

During our three year search for the farm, we'd also been quite amused (cynically so) at the poncy names people give their hamlets. "Cedar Park", "Tall Trees", "Vista Bleu" and other such putritudes joined the incredibly annoying "Thistle Do Me" or "Dun Roamin" style of names. Hmmm.. maybe that's a bit harsh. No offence to people with farms named like that, but it's just not us. We can't do 'cute' and take ourselves seriously. (Hang on a minute.. when did we start taking ourselves seriously?) But I digress...

We needed something that worked for us, and we enjoy being eccentric. It didn't hurt that our original plan was to be a walnut orchard.. from there it was a short step to Nutters Grove. Hey, truth in advertising.. !

After a few months of investigation, we realised that walnuts (along with emus, alpacas, miniature cattle, turtle toenails, et al) was likely to be more persuasive marketing by the suppliers to the industry than a really good farming idea, so we ditched walnuts as a business plan. The name however, stuck.

I love people's reactions to the name. It took me three years to convince one of our suppliers that the name REALLY is Nutters Grove, and not the various, more 'acceptable' variations such as Nutlers Grove. I'd ring up, go through the usual palaver, listen while the operator got the giggles, and accept their assurances it would be changed on their billing computer. Then next month, go through it all again..

There were times I swore someone in their accounts department was censuring my choice of name.

In the same vein, I'm going to relent on my rule of "no surnames" because I can't properly explain the following without revealing my previous surname. My first name you know, and my middle name is a very much detested "Rose" (I am many things, but flowery I am bloody NOT!). Well I **would** go and marry a guy with the surname "Sole", wouldn't I.

Got the joke yet? K. R. Sole. Thank goodness I don't have to listen to the sniggers any more when filling out forms or providing my name and initials to strangers. The most amusing reaction was when I bought my first cell phone. The lass at Telecom looked at the form, got the joke, and immediately corpsed in hysterics. Somehow she got herself under control (while Wayne and I pretended not to realise why she was laughing), and made an excuse to get something from out the back.

She disappeared, and we stood there grinning to hear her yell out to her colleagues, "Hey guys, I've got a real live arsehole in the showroom!"

Sods that we are, we pretended to not have previously realised the joke, and left the poor girl floundering in embarrassment when she returned. We did let her off the hook after a bit, but it was great watching her squirm. It was with great enjoyment that I finally lost that surname when Wayne and I married a couple of years ago.

But like I said, there's something to be said for truth in advertising!