Our Story
It was in the summer of 2011, I (John) had been in Thailand since 2006. I could read and to some extend write Thai language. But speaking Thai was really a difficult hurdle to overcome. So I went to the internet and searched for a teacher. Not a professional (although that was what I started to search for) but a normal person, and preferably someone with no English language skills. At first I met some persons who actually wanted to learn English and had no interest whatsoever in teaching me Thai. Then I met some who thought that all white males are extremely rich and walking ATMs. And then I met Kate. She was very young, and she didn’t ask for anything but friendship.
That way we started by meeting 2 times every week in Tesco Lotus. And we just walked around talking about life and Thailand. In those days Thailand was pretty troubled by civil and political unrest. So we had a lot to talk about. And my Thai ability improved drastically. We continued for years (Bell arrived in September 2011) as friends and teacher/student. And in early 2014 we realized that we were actually falling in love, despite the large age gap. I met Bell, first time, when she was 2 years old. But I had “known” her always.
That was short about our common story.
Now our personal stories short.
My name is John, I was born in 1960 on a cold January day in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a kid I was very introvert, a bookworm, and really not a happy kid. And I do not see my childhood as an especially happy memory. Early on I started to get interested in computers and programming, years before a PC was even a thing. Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak had just started building computers in the garage, and Bill Gates had bought an OS that became PC-DOS. I didn’t get rich and famous. As I wasn’t a designer or a genius businessman. But I learned the craft of programming, and ever since that, I have been programming computers. In my younger days I had to have “real” jobs too, as programming was not a real job opportunity. Apart from programming, travel is a passion. And I have been all over Europe and Asia, now looking forward to show Kate and Bell the world.
My name is Kate, I was born in 1993 in Bangkok. I didn’t live with my family from I was born. I lived with an old woman in the province Chainat, north of Bangkok. My life was anything but perfect but I was happy with the old woman. When I was 11 years old my biological family came to say that I needed to work for the family and earn money. So I started to work full time at a factory. My biggest dream was to become a singer, but my real life was work from early morning to late in the evening. For a short time I was with a man that didn’t treat me right and I moved to Bangkok again, alone. Here I met a Danish man who treated me as an equal. The age gap is very big, but I do not see it as a problem as he treats everyone good and he is very thoughtful. We met every week to talk about life and our common interests. He made me happy. After some years we became a couple and started to live together, and my life improved very much. Now I am happy every day he changed my life, and now we are a real family of only us 3. We moved to Portugal and I like it very much here. But I want to see the rest of Europe too.
Tinkerbell or Bell is, at the time of this writing, 11 years old. She loves to learn new things. She loves to go on trips, whether with us or with her friends at school. She is looking very much forward to go around Europe.