My first Birthday in Lisbon was really strange – BUT SUPER

Due to all our travelling (and my crashed mobile) I didn’t go online on my birthday. So I was very curious to read my B-Day greetings when I woke up at 4:30 am yesterday.

It was overwhelming – No matter where I clicked – which Social Net work I entered – there we’re kind words. There we’re so many that I couldn’t cope with them. I had to write them down.

I took me almost 4 hours to list all the greetings – then I had a document in front of me with names, nationalities, countries they we’re send from and a lot of fantastic quotes.

Knowing how the situation is here in Europe – with the miserable refugees and the religious ignorance I feel very privileged to have received greetings from friends of all colors, all religions, LGBT’s & straights, all ages, all political orientations (BUT NO FACISTS) from more than 20 countries in all continents.

With all comments, GIFs, Photos & videos gathered in one document I got a pretty good idea about how I am according to my friends. I am a hippie with a very diverse group friends.  

My friends are spreading online. I got a lot of messages from other social networks than Facebook: Twitter, LinkedIN, Skype, G+ Instagram…  and compared to previous years more of my friends used a personal message instead of writing on the wall. I like this trend 🙂

The oldest friend I received messages from is from the kinder garden in Vesterbro in the mid 60s. The oldest (age) friend was funnily enough his Mom.

Then I got messages from old colleagues, old staff, old bosses, business relations in general, fellow travelers from all over the world and all my buddies from the Copenhagen Nightlife since the 70s.

I don’t know about you. But when I was young I didn’t feel like being friends with my parents generation. So what a pleasant surprise to find all the super greetings from not only Kasper’s friends – and from my friends sons and daughters (several of them have visited us in Kathmandu and/or somewhere on the road and are looking forward to visit us in Lisbon). What a privilege.

The more kinky one:  How many of you appears in your friends sex fantasies – Or rather:  how many of you know you do? I didn’t until I received this one from a my dear gay friend Nasty: Masser af Tillykke. Savner dig. The Greatest DILF of all…

Another surprise. Some of the things you leave behind when you move to another part of the world is you business network. I feel I’m pretty good to staying in touch. Still it warmed my heart when an old business friend I haven’t been in touch with for a very long time writes: Hej Thomas. Tillykke med dagen – alt for længe siden vi har sludret – in all it’s simplicity a text like this means a lot. It shows that you’re not completely forgotten.

Then there are all the friends I didn’t hear from. A lot of you reached me in my dreams – or popped up while I sipped Champagne in the plane. Then there are all of you old schoolers who refuse to accept the fact that the WEB is here to stay. And then there are all the friends I have pissed off because I can’t keep my mouth shot – lets call them ex-friends

I have to highlight two groups of messages.

First – the ones from all our Nepalese friends. You have no idea about how difficult Kathmandu is to live in. I do my best NOT TO get completely crazy – still I explode with anger when things get out of hand.

Luckily I haven’t scared you away 😉 You mean everything to me.

Second – in August we entered a new chapter of our life by moving to Lisbon where we will stay half of the time. Seeing all the greetings from all the new friends we’ve met the last 12 moths is very encouraging. I warn you – as soon as its possible we will invite you to our fantastic house in Rua do Senhora do Monte – also if its only a ruin.