Carla What?!!!

Photosource: Unknown

I didn’t particularly like my name as a kid.
In Portuguese every third female is called Carla (every second is Maria!) and if you take out the “N” in Ornelas… and you strategically put in a “H”… let's just say I'm glad I don't have big ears or I'd never hear the end of it!

In English, I can't say that my name was too successful either. No one ever pronounced my surname properly (The different versions tried were dreadful, especially when heard in a crowded room). And my name sounds like one of the parts to a piece of clothing.

With time however… I learned to like my name and these days, I couldn't be prouder of it, I can't imagine being called by any other name but my own (No marriage for me thanks, unless the guy is willing to add my Surname to his, I ain´t adding no more names after the Ornelas!). Until very recently I thought my name was unique to the point that I'd never have to worry about finding another Carla Ornelas in the phonebook let alone on the company e-mail list…

Keeping this in mind, my first reaction to an e-mail from a Carla Ornelas was: “Which ape brain friend of mine thought this one up!... One banana for creativity, one whole whooping for monkeying around!”
Deciding to play along… I replied expecting to catch out the jellyfish…

Wouldn't you guess… it was no prank!

We're not the same age…
We don't share the same star sign…
We don't even live on the same continent…
But we have the same names… except for the middle (Sofia not Maria though some like to call me by that sometimes…)
As fate would have it, we're both fabricated from the same little island...
Alberto João once said that there are more Madeirans living outside of Madeira than in, so much so that it produced two Carla Ornelas!!!!

How did we find each other?... Google! (Isn't it just your favourite search engine of all time!)
Type in your name and see where it takes you, I was surprised that my blog’s profile was the very first link found.
I guess I owe you all a thank-you for that!

Blimey! Ain´t that just one of life's coincidences!