"SIGN"

I have had this topic before and again I am going to use photos of signs as the basis for my blog. This first photo sums up my housekeeping skills. My house is not dirty but it's never spotlessly clean or tidy. I like to think of it as 'lived in' and 'comfortable'. Have you ever visited someone whose house is so spotless that you feel nervous just sitting on their couch or leaving a cup on the bench? I have!! I hate it!

The other day John, Sian and I travelled to Melbourne to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. We had to 'sign' several forms and pieces of paper to legally change our names. The funny part about it is that we had to change our names from John and Ann-Maree Van Berlo to John and Ann-Maree Van Berlo. How silly!!! And we had to pay $200 to keep the names we have always had!!
You see, when John's parents and brothers arrived in Australia in 1956 they lived for a while in an immigration centre where nearly everyone was from the Netherlands. The mail was given out in alphabetical order so the 'Van' was dropped as everyone started with 'v'. The Van Berlo's became the Berlo family. Not long after they had left the centre, Wim and Nelly had a little Aussie baby whom they named Johnny. Thus John's birth certificate stated that he was Johnny Berlo.
However, his parents put the Van back onto their name when John was still a baby and he has always been known as John Van Berlo. Sounds convoluted but it's a true story.
John was unaware of this anomoly until we opened our marriage certificate a few years ago and realised that although our children were legally Van Berlo's...we weren't! If we had wanted to travel overseas we would have been denied passports because of this name difference. We simply had to sign papers and produce evidence to state that we were known in the community as Van Berlo.
Easy but expensive!
I also love funny 'signs":