August 24, 2025 • 39 mins
For my 200th episode, I wanted to introduce my Podvan family... to my actual family! It's my Mum and Dad!
So, in this one, we talk about the time I was at my absolute lowest, and they drove 10 hours from Melbourne for a surprise hug I didn't even know I needed. We also finally get the story about why I went to a psychiatrist when I was three years old (what?!), and we find out what they really thought about this "Podcast from inside a caravan" idea when they first heard it. Mum's response is HILARIOUS!!!
And to you, if you're reading this, thank you. 🤗 I mean, for reading this for starters - because I don't even know if anyone does... But also for your support - and for being part of this beautiful Podvan family.
Here's to the next 200! 🎉
Huge thanks to our Patreon Subscribers!
Get bonus episodes and more for $10 a month at http://podvan.com.au/members
Let’s connect! ⬇️
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Podcast with Rabbit. Hey, I'm Rabbit.
I record this podcast inside a cute little retro caravan from
1967 that I've tore around all over the place.
Podcast with Rabbit. So the Pod Van launched March
1st, 2024, and there's just beenthis incredible community that
has built around it online, you know, Facebook, the Facebook
(00:27):
group, the Patreon page where people are members, the number
of you who've reached out not just to me but to each other
through the social media. And then the events down here at
the waterfront in Gosford. We had the Pod Van's first
birthday, We've had the Pod Van staff Christmas party, which I
was the only staff member, stillAM.
(00:48):
But you all came along and I appreciate that and so many
other things. We were random catch up at
Gwendoline Bowling Club recently.
It's a real family is I guess where this idea came from,
right? So it's gone beyond community
now to being really like a pod van family.
And so for the 200th episode, I want to introduce my Pod Van
(01:11):
family to my actual family is mymum and dad.
I still got you guys on mute. We're allowed to talk now.
I hate to mute them because I'm making too much noise as I was
trying to get started. It's my 30th attempt at starting
the. Naughty kids in the room and.
(01:32):
For once, it's not me. I sent you guys some questions.
Also, Mum and Dad live in Melbourne ever since you came to
Australia, right? Melbourne.
Yeah. Yeah.
How many years like 8020? Something 1999.
They've driven up here just to come and sit in the pod van?
No, for a visit really. The last time you saw the pod
(01:55):
van was as I was driving away from your house when we bought
it on Facebook Marketplace. Yeah, pack your things and
leave. Heard that before, but that was
the idea for the pod van. It was Sav's idea, she said why
don't you renovate a caravan andput a studio into it?
And I knew I wanted something small and mobile, easy to get
around and that. And you found it on Facebook
(02:18):
Marketplace. Yeah, we found a couple.
Yeah, just was the smallest one of the lot.
Yeah, it's tiny, everyone tiny and.
Very. Exactly what I was looking for
but it did not look anything like this.
No, I nearly didn't get this podvan because PUD was hardcore
haggling with the guy as I was on the phone and.
(02:39):
There, there was a problem. You've been on the phone.
The problem was you were going, I'm saying to my dad that price
is, I can't remember how much. It was like 2 1/2 grand I think.
I'm a lot there. And you're offering them like
1500 or something, classic dad style.
She offered them 500. And then we got to a point where
I'm like, now I'm happy with that price.
(03:01):
And I'm saying that to dad on the phone and he's responding
going, yeah, I know. No, there's too much.
You're right. That's not what I'm saying.
He's just saying for the benefitof the guy in front of him.
Emotion was taken over. I wanted it and then next day I
think jumped in the car, drove down from the Central Coast to
(03:22):
Melbourne, picked it up, went home the next day, December
22nd, just before Christmas. Brought the thing home, started
working on it straight away. I remember this one particular
thing and watch out. Emotions are going to start
coming out here because I have them now.
There was a day within the last couple of months of me finishing
(03:42):
on the radio and it was a time when I started thinking, oh God,
this could be the end of my career in radio.
I was in a bad mental space at that time and I was renovating a
caravan on the side of the road at that time.
It's what I do, it's what I did do.
I'd go home from the premium radio show and just spend all
(04:03):
the day on tools and. Therapy.
Yeah, it really was because I have the whole day to myself and
the whole family's out and started with 1, ended up doing
10 of them, 10 caravans that I renovated and flipped.
Started in COVID time, but therewas a day there and yeah, I went
(04:25):
and got on the tools because I just needed to take my mind off
everything that was happening atwork.
I was, yeah, I wasn't a bad place.
And this 4 wheel drive comes up the road, does a UE pulls up
next to me and the window goes down and I'm like.
There we go. I don't.
Want to talk right now, whoever you are, Just not now.
(04:47):
And I reckon I gave the filthiest look, just gave that
look of Nope, move on. And I look through the window
and there's Mum and Dad and they've driven up from Melbourne
without me knowing, just becauseyou heard what was in my voice
at that time. And I will always remember that
(05:10):
as the time when I didn't know Ineeded a hug from my parents.
It really? Yeah.
We we could feel it. Yeah, that we said that was
enough, packed up a little bit. Run to the car quick.
Let's get there. 10 hours later.Yeah, I had no idea.
(05:34):
Absolutely no idea. And yeah, yeah, that.
So I will. I will always remember that.
Yeah. That was quite incredible.
Through this chat with my mum and dad, I want to we're going
to go through a few things, likewhat they really thought about
(05:54):
this podcast from a caravan idea.
When I told them about it. I want to know what it was like
because we're about to go through this very soon.
Jordan's going to be moving out at home and I want to know what
it was like when US four kids moved out of the house.
Like how big was the party? And I also want to know what the
(06:16):
psychiatrist said about me when I was three years old.
I don't think I've got the full story on that one.
So those and a whole bunch of other things I want to go
through through this chat. And I want to start with, we're
talking about before the pod vancommunity.
You guys have seen that from when it first started.
Actually, no, let's start with your honest thoughts on when I
(06:42):
said I'm going to do a podcast. It's going to be out of a
caravan. I'm going to turn around and
talk to people. What the Hell's a podcast?
So, so many people said. That great idea.
Do you serve coffee? Yeah.
The one thing I don't do. But then once you found out what
a podcast was, what were you thinking then after all those
(07:05):
years, 34 years of being in radio?
What we thought was five years previous.
What do you mean? Where were you going to go?
You're getting older, radius, getting further away, changing
you're different demographics and we were hammering you in
little quiet little quirky bits along the way about what you
thought about your future. I had through that whole time, I
(07:27):
always knew at some point I was going to age out essentially the
I was going to, they're going tochange and want to go to a
younger demographic. So I always had that in the back
of my mind and absolutely no Plan B.
Yeah, I don't know what it was going to be.
Having Plan B is not always the answer.
You have plan BC and it goes on until you find the mix.
(07:50):
And if you don't love to, do it.Not everyone's in love with your
job, but you've got to have a certain amount of light to get
this foot out of bed every morning.
So what do you do now? Jump out of bed.
Well. You're older now, so you're out.
I push a button and the bed sitsthere.
Yeah, no, I still, I, I still jump out of bed with what I'm
(08:13):
doing now with Pod Van Media. What's grown over this year, I
honestly don't know what I'll bedoing in a year from now because
more things just keep coming up.A business contacted me
yesterday. I haven't told you about this
one. They've seen the things I'm
doing with social media and thatit's different to what I'm doing
with these other clients. They will just want me to edit
(08:33):
their videos. So they're going to be filming
their staff talking about why they do what they do and why
they work for this company and all these kind of things, and
they just want to drop it in a drop box for me and have me edit
it all. Yep.
Video editing, which I do a ton of and have for years.
Something I had not seen myself doing either.
That door is opened and along with the other 10 doors, so many
(08:56):
doors and they keep opening and.So I want them crazy fun houses.
Sounds like it's fair. Yes.
Unfortunately I couldn't bring alot of listeners from the radio
with me because I couldn't tell them about what I was doing.
No one knew. It was really hard to let people
know about it, and it just kept growing over time.
But yeah, there was a moment, maybe three months ago when I
(09:20):
put up an episode where I told everyone exactly how much I make
from the ads. So it crossed 100,000 downloads.
The start of 1 episode there waslike 2 1/2 minutes of ads.
It was 5 ads on the start of it.Not ones that I do or anything,
it's just the company that I putthe podcast out through.
They just insert ads and it's Kmart and NSW government and all
(09:44):
these massive things. What was it for that month?
I think that month 118 dollars, I got paid for the ads and I
don't know it was that month or the month before, but I saw a
30,000 ads had been pushed out for that month through my
podcast and I'm like you're putting out 30,000 ads and I'm
getting 118 dollars. It's a low end of the no.
(10:07):
Yeah. That's crazy.
And but in my mind, up to that point, I always just thought if
I'm making 100 bucks a month when it starts, then I get 10
times the number of listeners. That'll be $1000 a month and I
get 100 times and it's going to be $10,000 a month coming in
through ads or whatever. I was not paying attention to
(10:27):
what I was doing with my son's then, so I don't know if that
worked, but essentially 10 timesthe number of people, 10 times
the amount of money coming in. And no, it did not work like
that. More ads went in, didn't make
any more money from it. So that kind of threw me because
I didn't know how. How do you make money?
And so for the pod van pod fam, the community around it, what
(10:47):
was that like watching that growing when you were seeing
that on the social media and stuff?
I was impressed. They're pretty cool.
They. I think person that I liked at
the start, not that I don't likeit now, but Kayla.
Kayla. Kayla from Cakes by Kayla.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's.
Popped up a few times. Yeah, and we went and had
coffee. Oh, did you where?
(11:08):
We had coffee at her little shop.
She doesn't have that shop anymore.
She sold it. Oh, all right, she was right
there. She liked the idea of us and.
Yeah, she did. That's right.
Stayed with you. Yeah, I.
Had a comment from your uncle Brian.
He said to me he listens quite abit because he's got eyesight
problems, so podcasts, audio books and things.
(11:30):
But he says. I was very surprised.
He's right out there with his mental abilities or mental
abilities, mental abilities, mental abilities, but putting it
out there. The mental health that.
This is what my problems are, Yeah.
(11:52):
He was quite surprised. But he says it's good.
It's therapy for you and therapyfor other people who are
listening. The people who are in the
cupboard, they're like in the dark cave.
They don't know where to go or whatever.
But there is daylight out there,you know, come out.
That's not just. Me the only one out.
(12:13):
There, yeah. And then the more you talk to
people everyone's broken yeah. Yeah, in some way.
And you they. Are now don't know.
No, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, and those episodes we've been doing with Heather Irvine
Randall. Oh.
Oh, I like those ones. Oh.
She's. Doctor John.
And Doctor? Oh, her dad.
Yeah, that's right. He died in one boy.
(12:33):
We've got you pigged. Yeah.
You. Probably did.
I probably need to listen to that one again.
Makes us through those episodes with Heather that I've found out
a few things about myself, whichis describing all the ADHD
stuff, and I'm going tick, tick.Yeah, yeah, I know.
Tick. Well, that was the one when I
messaged. No, I didn't message you.
(12:53):
I just said in the episode I reckon my parents would hear
this and go, I reckon we've got an undiagnosed 1 here and the
next day I'm out walking and I get a text coming through from
dad. What do you mean undiagnosed?
We took you when you were 3-4, something like that.
Yeah, about 3:00 and. I was like what?
Wait, what? I don't remember that.
(13:14):
You don't, but. You're done.
You don't I. Don't.
I had never considered it. And since I've been diagnosed,
educated now, and I talk about that in the podcast, the number
of people that have reached out to me go, you didn't know.
I'm like, what do you mean they go, we knew.
(13:34):
What's the problem? If people were saying that,
they'd hear me on the radio in the morning.
One lady, she was saying, I wondered why you never spoke
about your ADHD on air. Because I didn't know I had it.
Yeah. But now I look back and God, it
makes sense. Yeah, yeah, put it together.
Jigsaw puzzle that there's one piece missing and you can't find
it. There's plenty pieces missing
(13:56):
the box, you shake the box and like 3 bits fall out and lost
most of the puzzle. And then learning more about
ADHD and how it works with the brain and you're always chasing
dopamine hits and doing stupid stuff.
So much, so much makes sense. So what did they say back then?
(14:16):
Well. Basically, we had a lot of witch
doctor stuff. Oh yeah, to start with, before
we saw the official. You took me to a witch.
Doctor stuff. Oh, you had people going.
We were living in the woods. It's.
Preservatives. Oh, OK, right.
Preservatives in food and thingslike that.
Yeah. So we went through this whole
(14:39):
food thing that really, you know, I had the theory on
Raspberry drinks. Oh yeah, that was a big thing
with hyperactive kids. Yeah, it's the Raspberry
cordial. Yeah, yeah.
And people come up with the weirdest ideas.
Oh, drink this. This is herbal tea with.
Yeah, whatever. Were they prescribing medication
back then? Yes, what they want to prescribe
(15:01):
you was like Prozac and Valium types of no.
Calm you down. Yeah, yeah.
Calm you down So what does that do Do.
Oh yeah, I come brain dead. Well, that's.
The crazy thing, the meds I'm onnow and you've.
Got a? Stimulant.
To active brain, you've got to do something.
You need to be a center of attention.
(15:25):
What? Yeah.
You said you weren't going to say that.
I know. Go to kinder.
You know, a kindergarten? Oh, you always had to be at the
front of the class, really. And then all the girls sat
around you. Really.
(15:45):
Hi, hi, you're. Pulling the chicks in mate.
Yeah, must have been the hair. Yeah.
I can't think of anything else. But the the whole thing with
playing sport was a teamwork thing.
Could you like to be an individual?
But you need to have teamwork. You've got to be even on radio.
(16:08):
It was a time when you were out there thinking you were island
on your own. Oh yeah.
A time. But who was backing up?
There's a producer. There was a from the
receptionist at the front. It's a funny one because I look
back on, you know, if I had beenmedicated from way back, I don't
(16:29):
think I would have ended up where I did.
Yeah. We agree.
We agree with that like. My psychiatrist when I was
talking to him about this, got to the end of the hour first
meeting with him. God that was funny.
He goes believe when he said it.He goes huh?
Oh, you're an interesting one. OK.
(16:50):
I got to write a paper on this. I'm like, I'm pretty sure you
see a lot of people. You're an interesting 1 you.
Guys, you've essentially forged an entire career out of your
ADHD. And I was like.
That's interesting, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't go and work in
(17:13):
a store or do one of those jobs where you just turn up, do the
job, go home. Yeah, it was.
Radio's so creative. You're getting those dopaminies.
Well, we know instantly, starting from the beginning of
radio. You know when you started, the
first thing was. Work experience.
Yeah, work experience. Yeah.
And they came home and went. I know what I want to do.
(17:37):
And they got a part time job in there.
You made the coffee. Don't even know to make coffee.
And you got a machine. Still don't mind you?
I don't remember what my first jobs in there at BOP FM, I had
to type up the Win at Work questions for Sally Cook and
they asked me can you type and which?
Yeah, never typed. And was it a typewriter?
(17:58):
So it was actually like, put thepaper in.
I did that. And then another one was when
they asked me if I could drive astick shift, God, column shift
on the yeah, they got a new van and they were moving from that
old building to the new one. And I went, yeah, never driven
the column shift thing. Just a can do attitude.
(18:20):
Yeah. And.
But to you was. Brand new, Yeah, brand new.
That whole new white van, I'm Bunny hopping it down, yeah.
Oh boys, hump on. But yeah, they are doing it from
work experience. I remember I wrote to, I've
never brought this up with you before.
I wrote to a guy's name's Kerry Varco and he was doing nights on
(18:45):
Kiwi FM, which I think came out of like Hamilton, and I would
listen to it when my headphones on in the in the evening, I'm
meant to be asleep. And I wrote to him just saying I
really want to get into radio and all that sort of thing.
He sent me a book on how to get into radio and some Kiwi FM
stickers and a card that he wrote a note in, you know, about
(19:07):
following your dreams and, and all that stuff.
That probably really started thewhole thing.
I've looked for him. Oh man, I've looked so hard to
find Kerry Varco. Yeah, he'd have no idea what the
impact he had on someone's life by writing that card and sending
out a ball. Yeah.
That was. A defining moment and the second
(19:29):
defining moment was I want to leave school.
I don't think that was my choiceso much.
Yeah, that's. The school school was the best.
Do you know I have not been in afight since that last day of
school? Not one fight.
Suspended 3 times for fighting angry little man and I haven't
had a fight. Not one since my last day of
(19:49):
school. I don't think school was for me.
Mr. Druck Drucker. Oh, Ducker.
Brian Ducker. Ducker, yeah.
Ducker. Yeah, they are.
You'll never be anything. I heard that a lot.
Had that a lot and I still the school is not for everybody,
School reports. No.
No, if he only annoying, self annoying, yeah, yeah.
(20:14):
I don't want to apply myself. I mean, I don't need to apply
myself. I passed.
What's the past No 50? School reports towards AAA AAA,
AAA, but Roy comments at the bottom were definitely.
Not like I don't think I did well, did I in class?
Some grades, grades were fine. Grades are fine, but what up
(20:36):
Your actions in the classroom was annoying, yeah.
Yeah, you you'd go into the classroom, get your work done in
about 10 minutes and. Everybody, hey.
Yeah. I'm trying to do something.
Pissed to there. So you got in so much trouble
constantly. Yeah, yeah.
As I do with that. I'd be finished for work and
then. You and your you and your bloody
(20:59):
mate, Tony. Yeah, yeah, funny.
And he would always be the one getting in trouble because he'd
be cracking up laughing and the teacher just look up.
He'd laugh at 2 flies, wasn't it?
Wasn't me when you said I want to leave school, I said you've
got 24 hours so you'd come to the scrap yard.
(21:19):
Yeah, the dad was. Riding on your bike?
Dad was working in a scrap yard at the Scrap Metal place.
Cool. And I said, well, you can leave
school, but you gotta have a job.
So you got 24 hours or you come here dirty hands?
Oh, no, thank you. Yeah, I had a job the next day.
(21:39):
Yes, it did. Working in a survey and still
part time at the radio station that was going through all of
that to while I was at school. And you ran the streets with the
milk crate? Yeah.
I think that would have been my first job, yeah, I was like 13,
I think. So that was the funniest one.
We built a new house and at the time, every dollar counted.
(22:00):
And we're standing there, had a great view out over the street.
And we're standing there and telling them, sorry, the budget
does not see an allowance. And I think you were getting 5
bucks a week out of us. Yeah.
Oh, my God, what am I going to do?
And coming up the road, Doo, Doo, Doo Doo, it's a maltman.
(22:21):
Go down or see that guy down thedriveway.
Saw the man. Bruce, Bruce.
Nichols, Bruce. Yeah, yeah.
And what was the other dude's name?
Oh, yes, Colin, Colin, yeah. Bruce and Colin, they were two.
Totally here. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, after the milk crown, there was radio.
I worked in a sports store for one day.
And lived in the caravan. And stuff.
(22:42):
Oh yeah. Tried to burn it down.
God, that's right. Electric blanket.
Electric blanket. Burst into flames in front of my
face. Yeah.
Yeah oh such a little bogan too just down there yeah Led
Zeppelin I think was my I love playing down there full circle.
Hey here I am back in a caravan.King Gabba might have Chan have
(23:04):
been big supporters of the pod Dan podcast right from the start
and you get all the stuff from them that you'd expect to You
get plans, you'd get all the Weber stuff.
You get all the steel gear, the amazing principal kitchens, but
it's the stuff that you don't expect like we.
Had an elderly lady come into the store and she brought her
remote control from her television and she didn't know
(23:25):
how to get it to work and we opened it up and saw that she
just needed new batteries. And then she told me that her
husband had recently passed away, so he was the one that did
all that stuff for her and she didn't have anybody around to do
that, so she needed us. So we put batteries out of the
packet and put them in the remote and we helped her out and
made her day. That's what she got.
(23:46):
And the mighty helpful King Campbell Minor Gen.
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(24:06):
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(24:27):
Rabbit. So I said at the start that
Jordan's probably going to be moving out by the end of this
year and it's been good because his, my girlfriend is down in
Sydney and so he's, we barely even know when he's in the house
or not anyway, So it's been a bit of a buffer.
If it happens suddenly, that'd be hard.
(24:48):
It'd be weird not having him around and stuff.
So, and we're thinking about that and, you know, and then
Tiana's, I don't know, sometime in the next 5 years maybe then
just back to just seven. I, they're gonna be thinking
about what it was like for you guys.
You've had the four kids, by theway.
Which one's your favorite? Let's do Dave do it.
(25:10):
The other 3 will get upset. What was his name?
No, I'm right here because they might see it and they.
Lived home a long time ago. What was the order of us moving
out of home? 4 kids so Sue was.
First she went to Auckland. Two years older than me.
Finished in nursing, went to London for 11 years.
Came back with her husband and her daughter.
(25:32):
And then you went and came back.You went.
How old was she when she went, like, to London?
Did she finish school? Oh.
Yeah, yeah, OK. Give us bright.
Good than some of your kids do. I just knew.
When to get out? Yeah.
When they told me. And they told you to get out of
that. No, it wasn't you that went in
(25:52):
there. You put the fellow in there,
didn't. You what?
In a bin? Yeah, yeah.
It's just terrible. It was a thing that was done at
that school, binning people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Terrible, I know. Terrible.
Funny at the time, Yeah. Terrible.
It's still funny. You see what?
It's still funny. You're still funny.
(26:14):
No, these days it. Was a very naughty boy.
These days, folding other kids from the school in half into a
big bin, Yeah, is not funny anymore.
OK, but so. OK, so she finished school and
then did all her nursing stuff and then went over there.
So it wasn't. So see, she went to a nursing
home as a hero. Well, what do you call I?
(26:35):
Don't know what you called them back.
Then like just a help. Yeah, again.
And after about a month or two in there, the head nurse that
was here at times, you've got natural ability for.
Yeah. And then put her on the path.
I say about like those kind of jobs, nurses and that it's a
certain type of person. Like I couldn't do it.
I could study and get the qualifications and do all that,
(26:58):
but it's I don't. Want the want of caring?
Yeah, the things they wipe up and things that they do it.
Nope. And one of the grateful that
there are people that do. Yes.
One of the actual things she hadto do was she had an old lady
die and she had to dress her so the family could come in and
(27:18):
look. Now in her lifespan of working
or anything, she had nothing to do with death.
Yeah. And then come away from that
with I did a good job. And I want to do this for a
career. I think what you'd take out of
something like that, like she would have seen the family and
seen what she was able to do forthem.
(27:40):
Yeah, extend the the warmth, Yeah, the love.
Yeah, amazing. I love that she stayed with
that. Yeah.
All through all of that. Yeah.
And then I was in, out, in, out,in.
You keep rolling the door. Yeah.
I climbed through a window. Yeah.
But we did have one incident with you, and that was you were
living in Napier on the radio there.
(28:02):
Oh, yeah. And you thought to a surprise
visit back to Taronga. Come to place we're staying at.
No one here. Where'd you where'd you go?
You always threatened to. Yeah.
Move when I each time I left. And we did.
We did. Really.
I came to do a. Surprise with him.
You'd moved. Yeah.
(28:23):
Didn't tell me we. Went to run a roll.
Oh, man, I'm gonna process that later on.
It's funny now. Yeah, Yeah.
Tonight, when I'm lying in bed, I'm gonna go.
Yeah. They moved and didn't tell me.
Pretty sure we had phones back then.
Yeah, no, they were on the wall.Yeah, yeah, that's right.
(28:44):
Yeah, yeah. And someone was on it down the
hallway. Took the big long lead down and
underneath the bedroom door to get off the phone.
Mum. I'm on the phone.
I could. I heard you pick that up.
Yeah. And so then Nat and Vinnie, so
my younger brother and sister, they're twins and five years
younger than me, so they were still there for a while.
(29:06):
Who went last? I think Nat was the last to
leave. Because I'm just trying to
picture the thing of that momentand just wondering what that's
like because we know it's comingfor seven I where there's just
the two of us rattling around inthe in the house, that moment
when the kids move out. And sort of leave and go and
(29:27):
come back. Yeah, Vince did.
He went away, came back. See, girls are different.
The maturity is different. Oh, I'm well.
With and, well, we'll move. I was just saying yesterday how
mature and how Tiana has just got her head on straight.
She's just she's and I'm like like more mature than I am now
(29:47):
or will ever. Be maybe, yeah.
Boys, go out. Let's go and party, yeah?
Yeah. OK.
So there was not like a moment of when someone left and then
it's just the house is empty andquiet and yeah.
Well, there was a moment and that was a defining moment for
us to come to Australia. I came home and mum would cook
(30:10):
this big dinner up and I said just enough to feed four people
here. You know, how about we go to
Australia cause and then she goes.
We've got food. Yeah, let's go.
So boom, we'd gone. We'd already cashed up and so
we're moving on. Yeah, it took a long time for me
to get the meal smaller. Yeah, it's just was in my, you
(30:32):
know, every time it was a big. Six of us.
Yeah. And it's a lot of Mashed potato.
You got it was get mate. We go through this on nights
when and it happens quite often,Tiana will be out at dance or at
a friends place or something, Jordans at work or out with his
mates and Savile say it's just the two of us for dinner.
I'm like, it's not worth like making anything.
Yes, I'll have toast. Yeah.
(30:53):
And that's, yeah, quite my nail for us too.
Yeah, yeah, I had Rogan Josh andrice last night.
There's little Woolworths meals.Throw it in the microwave for 4
minutes. Yep, job.
Done. Yeah, it's over easier.
Quite different to cooking for the whole family, he says.
Like. Don't let Julie hear that.
I Yeah. The microwave meals, they're
(31:13):
fantastic. And so did you move over to
Australia to be with the family?No.
No. No, just time for us to do our
don't think yeah, OK, because everyone else.
Were you worried that I would turn up again?
Ohh no, you were you've. Got We've already been up to
Brisbane. Yeah, when you were up there.
(31:35):
OK. That was about 12 months
previous. Yeah, right.
Wasn't there for very long. And you were jumping on the bus
to Griffith. 20 hours on the busfor the job interview, 20 hours
on the bus and that was back to Surface Paradise.
Got the phone call saying yeah, you've got the job, come on back
down. Basically went back up, packed
our bags because we moved to Australia with only a pack on
(31:57):
our backs. No plan, no idea what we're
doing or anything. And then back on the bus again
for the 20 hour trip. For that one, they paid my fare.
For the interview, I had to pay my own, so I had to pay my bus
fare. And then when I got the job,
they paid mine but didn't pay sales.
And that was 20 hours. We arrived in Leighton, it was
0. Degrees singing the song The
(32:19):
wheels on the Bus, round and round.
Stopping in the middle of the night, you know they'd stop and
do those toilet breaks or whatever and you'll get off off
the bus. I remember this old timer
standing there and pointing out all the stars.
You know what the Sky's like when you're out.
Oh yeah. Oh.
Yeah, yeah. Bloody fuse.
Oh. Magical.
(32:40):
Yeah. And he was pointing out, you
know, Orion's Belt, and that's the, you know, all these things
that I remember that so clearly.It was great.
Yeah. To wrap this one up, let's get a
bit of advice from some elderly folk.
That's you guys that. Sounds.
Like a bit of advice. What is one piece of advice that
your own parents gave you that is stuck with you?
(33:02):
Because I've got a Ripper from PUD.
You know what it is? You go on.
Eat your vegetables and no, nothing that sensible.
I would quite often have to bring this up all the time.
You know, Dad always said man can't run with no legs.
(33:24):
It was tackling advice for him, rugby, but that line had stuck
with me forever. Man can't run with no legs.
And then that, what was his name?
Oscar Pretorius as it is his name and he's got those things.
And I was like, Oh well, that just wrecked my dad's saying he
does quite well. My kids know Jordan and every
(33:46):
single time man can't run with no legs.
Nope. Well.
I don't remember the time when you said it.
I know it was about rugby and itwas about tackling.
Get him around the legs, man. Can't run with no legs.
Yeah, and the way you said it, maybe that's profound.
Hold on to that forever. Can you think of anything?
From Never make the same mistaketwice.
(34:09):
Oh, and we're all guilty of that.
Oh. Yeah, there was one I heard a
while ago, we set on Airwest, I think it was on here with Gina.
And the timing of it was perfect.
It was quite amazing. They were pulling all the stuff
out of the radio station, doing a whole bunch of renovations.
And there was this like a motivational quote kind of thing
stuck on the wall behind this volume, been there forever.
(34:30):
And we were just thinking about doing a new segment on the radio
where we did like a it was almost like a quote of the day,
something to ponder on to finishup the show each day.
And we'd been talking about should we do it?
Do we finish the show like that?Don't know.
And then during the show, walkedout of the studio, people were
dragging things around. I pulled this filing cabinet
out, saw this thing and went, that's a sign.
(34:50):
Like literally it's a sign. And it was do your best until
you know better, then do better.Wow.
Because you will make mistakes. You do dumb stuff.
I've got this. And then if you can learn from
it and do better. I thought that was amazing.
Do your best until you know better, then do better.
(35:11):
Never be afraid to change midstream because some things
just don't fit people. Yeah, If you start doing
something and you go, this is great, maybe not quite me, and
I'll persevere and it's going South.
Get out of it. Yeah, Move on.
That's too short. I'm.
(35:32):
Yeah, I've done it many a time. Yeah, I know you have the number
of jobs that you had and all thedifferent things that that you
did. Remember that, but always
looking for the next thing. Always looking for the something
else. Yeah.
And making that thing work. Yeah.
Until it didn't, and then you make something else work.
Yeah, yeah, there's always something else around the
corner. There really is.
(35:54):
I'm on this whole thing at the moment.
It's like why we just went to Thailand.
It was, you know, we sold our house over in Adelaide and
that's what's enabled me to do this, to do the pod band over
the last, over that first year of doing it, I was making a
little bit of money but not a drop in the ocean compared to
what I was making on radio and you know, bank balance was just
going backwards. If we hadn't sold that house in
(36:18):
Adelaide, which we'd held onto for 12 years, we built that over
there and it's been renting it out all the time.
If we hadn't sold that, there's no way I'd be able to do this.
It was kind of just like a backstop for me to build
something through that time. Didn't have that.
I would have had you know, a timeline of like 6 months.
If it's not making money by thenor something, then I gotta go
(36:38):
and get a job. There's nothing to say that we
couldn't sell the house that we live in now and buy one of them
big fancy caravans and you're travelling around Australia.
Let's try it. I love seeing you guys getting
out with your caravan and just going away for the weekend,
doing all those kind of things. We we like the water.
I'm very attracted to water. I don't swim in that butt.
(36:59):
No, kind of the same on that. I probably got that from you.
I find it so centering. So I get on the beach and yeah,
you feel the weight come off theshoulders.
Just stand there and stare at the water.
Even if we go in the Bush and there's a little Creek or
whatever, yeah, I wander off quite often.
Oh. What are you doing down there?
(37:20):
Yeah, on your own. You're at an age now where you
can't go wandering off. Put out some sort of alert.
No, no, no, no, no, no. No, I, I heard actually it was
in the book I was reading last night and the cop says they've
put out a Silver Alert. It's Bartney.
It was a Silver Alert. It's like when one of the oldies
goes wandering off and they always find them, but they're
down. Such as?
That's a little Silver Alert. It's hilarious.
(37:42):
It's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one.
So you can put those out. Now put one.
I'm gonna stop doing a little wander around.
I really like this question. I went looking around online for
a good questions to ask your parents, and I love that we're
getting to do this because this is a little time capsule for me
and it's been great to hold ontoforever.
(38:04):
There was a point at one stage with the pod van where I was
going to do that memory lane thing.
Yep, we're talking about that. And basically, parents come in,
kids come in, the kids can ask the parents questions, and you
hold onto that video forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it really captures that moment at that time.
And so I went looking for questions around that.
And I'll finish with this one. If you could go back and have a
(38:25):
30 minute conversation with yourselves the day before you
became parents, what would you talk about to yourself?
Oh. Shit.
I don't know. Heavy for a last one.
We just be parents. Yeah, 'cause that's the thing.
Just do it. Yeah.
You don't know what you're doing.
No, you make a million. Here's the book.
(38:47):
Book. Yeah.
Yeah. And every nucleus in that
family, yeah, there's something different.
Oh. Totally.
Yeah, Yeah. There is really nothing you
could go back and say to yourself ahead of.
Yeah, you could probably go watch out for the second one.
There's something you'd like to change along the way, but Lotto
(39:10):
results. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But anything that you do then that changes everything that
leads up to where you get to now.
Yeah. You've got to make that question
answer it yourself. Mum's getting distracted by
puppies out the back of the pod van now, so she's getting it
wandering off. We'll have a Silver Alert any
minute now. More than four.
(39:31):
Thank you so much for jumping inand doing this for the that all
200th episode. I've got four more pages of
questions. Is that all?
Well, you had 1/2 hour nap in the middle of it so you guys
need coffee. So we better go and get.
That podcast with Rabbit.
Podcast with Rabbit. Hey, I'm Rabbit.
I record this podcast inside a cute little retro caravan from
1967 that I've tore around all over the place.
Podcast with Rabbit. So the Pod Van launched March
1st, 2024, and there's just beenthis incredible community that
has built around it online, you know, Facebook, the Facebook
(00:27):
group, the Patreon page where people are members, the number
of you who've reached out not just to me but to each other
through the social media. And then the events down here at
the waterfront in Gosford. We had the Pod Van's first
birthday, We've had the Pod Van staff Christmas party, which I
was the only staff member, stillAM.
(00:48):
But you all came along and I appreciate that and so many
other things. We were random catch up at
Gwendoline Bowling Club recently.
It's a real family is I guess where this idea came from,
right? So it's gone beyond community
now to being really like a pod van family.
And so for the 200th episode, I want to introduce my Pod Van
(01:11):
family to my actual family is mymum and dad.
I still got you guys on mute. We're allowed to talk now.
I hate to mute them because I'm making too much noise as I was
trying to get started. It's my 30th attempt at starting
the. Naughty kids in the room and.
(01:32):
For once, it's not me. I sent you guys some questions.
Also, Mum and Dad live in Melbourne ever since you came to
Australia, right? Melbourne.
Yeah. Yeah.
How many years like 8020? Something 1999.
They've driven up here just to come and sit in the pod van?
No, for a visit really. The last time you saw the pod
(01:55):
van was as I was driving away from your house when we bought
it on Facebook Marketplace. Yeah, pack your things and
leave. Heard that before, but that was
the idea for the pod van. It was Sav's idea, she said why
don't you renovate a caravan andput a studio into it?
And I knew I wanted something small and mobile, easy to get
around and that. And you found it on Facebook
(02:18):
Marketplace. Yeah, we found a couple.
Yeah, just was the smallest one of the lot.
Yeah, it's tiny, everyone tiny and.
Very. Exactly what I was looking for
but it did not look anything like this.
No, I nearly didn't get this podvan because PUD was hardcore
haggling with the guy as I was on the phone and.
(02:39):
There, there was a problem. You've been on the phone.
The problem was you were going, I'm saying to my dad that price
is, I can't remember how much. It was like 2 1/2 grand I think.
I'm a lot there. And you're offering them like
1500 or something, classic dad style.
She offered them 500. And then we got to a point where
I'm like, now I'm happy with that price.
(03:01):
And I'm saying that to dad on the phone and he's responding
going, yeah, I know. No, there's too much.
You're right. That's not what I'm saying.
He's just saying for the benefitof the guy in front of him.
Emotion was taken over. I wanted it and then next day I
think jumped in the car, drove down from the Central Coast to
(03:22):
Melbourne, picked it up, went home the next day, December
22nd, just before Christmas. Brought the thing home, started
working on it straight away. I remember this one particular
thing and watch out. Emotions are going to start
coming out here because I have them now.
There was a day within the last couple of months of me finishing
(03:42):
on the radio and it was a time when I started thinking, oh God,
this could be the end of my career in radio.
I was in a bad mental space at that time and I was renovating a
caravan on the side of the road at that time.
It's what I do, it's what I did do.
I'd go home from the premium radio show and just spend all
(04:03):
the day on tools and. Therapy.
Yeah, it really was because I have the whole day to myself and
the whole family's out and started with 1, ended up doing
10 of them, 10 caravans that I renovated and flipped.
Started in COVID time, but therewas a day there and yeah, I went
(04:25):
and got on the tools because I just needed to take my mind off
everything that was happening atwork.
I was, yeah, I wasn't a bad place.
And this 4 wheel drive comes up the road, does a UE pulls up
next to me and the window goes down and I'm like.
There we go. I don't.
Want to talk right now, whoever you are, Just not now.
(04:47):
And I reckon I gave the filthiest look, just gave that
look of Nope, move on. And I look through the window
and there's Mum and Dad and they've driven up from Melbourne
without me knowing, just becauseyou heard what was in my voice
at that time. And I will always remember that
(05:10):
as the time when I didn't know Ineeded a hug from my parents.
It really? Yeah.
We we could feel it. Yeah, that we said that was
enough, packed up a little bit. Run to the car quick.
Let's get there. 10 hours later.Yeah, I had no idea.
(05:34):
Absolutely no idea. And yeah, yeah, that.
So I will. I will always remember that.
Yeah. That was quite incredible.
Through this chat with my mum and dad, I want to we're going
to go through a few things, likewhat they really thought about
(05:54):
this podcast from a caravan idea.
When I told them about it. I want to know what it was like
because we're about to go through this very soon.
Jordan's going to be moving out at home and I want to know what
it was like when US four kids moved out of the house.
Like how big was the party? And I also want to know what the
(06:16):
psychiatrist said about me when I was three years old.
I don't think I've got the full story on that one.
So those and a whole bunch of other things I want to go
through through this chat. And I want to start with, we're
talking about before the pod vancommunity.
You guys have seen that from when it first started.
Actually, no, let's start with your honest thoughts on when I
(06:42):
said I'm going to do a podcast. It's going to be out of a
caravan. I'm going to turn around and
talk to people. What the Hell's a podcast?
So, so many people said. That great idea.
Do you serve coffee? Yeah.
The one thing I don't do. But then once you found out what
a podcast was, what were you thinking then after all those
(07:05):
years, 34 years of being in radio?
What we thought was five years previous.
What do you mean? Where were you going to go?
You're getting older, radius, getting further away, changing
you're different demographics and we were hammering you in
little quiet little quirky bits along the way about what you
thought about your future. I had through that whole time, I
(07:27):
always knew at some point I was going to age out essentially the
I was going to, they're going tochange and want to go to a
younger demographic. So I always had that in the back
of my mind and absolutely no Plan B.
Yeah, I don't know what it was going to be.
Having Plan B is not always the answer.
You have plan BC and it goes on until you find the mix.
(07:50):
And if you don't love to, do it.Not everyone's in love with your
job, but you've got to have a certain amount of light to get
this foot out of bed every morning.
So what do you do now? Jump out of bed.
Well. You're older now, so you're out.
I push a button and the bed sitsthere.
Yeah, no, I still, I, I still jump out of bed with what I'm
(08:13):
doing now with Pod Van Media. What's grown over this year, I
honestly don't know what I'll bedoing in a year from now because
more things just keep coming up.A business contacted me
yesterday. I haven't told you about this
one. They've seen the things I'm
doing with social media and thatit's different to what I'm doing
with these other clients. They will just want me to edit
(08:33):
their videos. So they're going to be filming
their staff talking about why they do what they do and why
they work for this company and all these kind of things, and
they just want to drop it in a drop box for me and have me edit
it all. Yep.
Video editing, which I do a ton of and have for years.
Something I had not seen myself doing either.
That door is opened and along with the other 10 doors, so many
(08:56):
doors and they keep opening and.So I want them crazy fun houses.
Sounds like it's fair. Yes.
Unfortunately I couldn't bring alot of listeners from the radio
with me because I couldn't tell them about what I was doing.
No one knew. It was really hard to let people
know about it, and it just kept growing over time.
But yeah, there was a moment, maybe three months ago when I
(09:20):
put up an episode where I told everyone exactly how much I make
from the ads. So it crossed 100,000 downloads.
The start of 1 episode there waslike 2 1/2 minutes of ads.
It was 5 ads on the start of it.Not ones that I do or anything,
it's just the company that I putthe podcast out through.
They just insert ads and it's Kmart and NSW government and all
(09:44):
these massive things. What was it for that month?
I think that month 118 dollars, I got paid for the ads and I
don't know it was that month or the month before, but I saw a
30,000 ads had been pushed out for that month through my
podcast and I'm like you're putting out 30,000 ads and I'm
getting 118 dollars. It's a low end of the no.
(10:07):
Yeah. That's crazy.
And but in my mind, up to that point, I always just thought if
I'm making 100 bucks a month when it starts, then I get 10
times the number of listeners. That'll be $1000 a month and I
get 100 times and it's going to be $10,000 a month coming in
through ads or whatever. I was not paying attention to
(10:27):
what I was doing with my son's then, so I don't know if that
worked, but essentially 10 timesthe number of people, 10 times
the amount of money coming in. And no, it did not work like
that. More ads went in, didn't make
any more money from it. So that kind of threw me because
I didn't know how. How do you make money?
And so for the pod van pod fam, the community around it, what
(10:47):
was that like watching that growing when you were seeing
that on the social media and stuff?
I was impressed. They're pretty cool.
They. I think person that I liked at
the start, not that I don't likeit now, but Kayla.
Kayla. Kayla from Cakes by Kayla.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's.
Popped up a few times. Yeah, and we went and had
coffee. Oh, did you where?
(11:08):
We had coffee at her little shop.
She doesn't have that shop anymore.
She sold it. Oh, all right, she was right
there. She liked the idea of us and.
Yeah, she did. That's right.
Stayed with you. Yeah, I.
Had a comment from your uncle Brian.
He said to me he listens quite abit because he's got eyesight
problems, so podcasts, audio books and things.
(11:30):
But he says. I was very surprised.
He's right out there with his mental abilities or mental
abilities, mental abilities, mental abilities, but putting it
out there. The mental health that.
This is what my problems are, Yeah.
(11:52):
He was quite surprised. But he says it's good.
It's therapy for you and therapyfor other people who are
listening. The people who are in the
cupboard, they're like in the dark cave.
They don't know where to go or whatever.
But there is daylight out there,you know, come out.
That's not just. Me the only one out.
(12:13):
There, yeah. And then the more you talk to
people everyone's broken yeah. Yeah, in some way.
And you they. Are now don't know.
No, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, and those episodes we've been doing with Heather Irvine
Randall. Oh.
Oh, I like those ones. Oh.
She's. Doctor John.
And Doctor? Oh, her dad.
Yeah, that's right. He died in one boy.
(12:33):
We've got you pigged. Yeah.
You. Probably did.
I probably need to listen to that one again.
Makes us through those episodes with Heather that I've found out
a few things about myself, whichis describing all the ADHD
stuff, and I'm going tick, tick.Yeah, yeah, I know.
Tick. Well, that was the one when I
messaged. No, I didn't message you.
(12:53):
I just said in the episode I reckon my parents would hear
this and go, I reckon we've got an undiagnosed 1 here and the
next day I'm out walking and I get a text coming through from
dad. What do you mean undiagnosed?
We took you when you were 3-4, something like that.
Yeah, about 3:00 and. I was like what?
Wait, what? I don't remember that.
(13:14):
You don't, but. You're done.
You don't I. Don't.
I had never considered it. And since I've been diagnosed,
educated now, and I talk about that in the podcast, the number
of people that have reached out to me go, you didn't know.
I'm like, what do you mean they go, we knew.
(13:34):
What's the problem? If people were saying that,
they'd hear me on the radio in the morning.
One lady, she was saying, I wondered why you never spoke
about your ADHD on air. Because I didn't know I had it.
Yeah. But now I look back and God, it
makes sense. Yeah, yeah, put it together.
Jigsaw puzzle that there's one piece missing and you can't find
it. There's plenty pieces missing
(13:56):
the box, you shake the box and like 3 bits fall out and lost
most of the puzzle. And then learning more about
ADHD and how it works with the brain and you're always chasing
dopamine hits and doing stupid stuff.
So much, so much makes sense. So what did they say back then?
(14:16):
Well. Basically, we had a lot of witch
doctor stuff. Oh yeah, to start with, before
we saw the official. You took me to a witch.
Doctor stuff. Oh, you had people going.
We were living in the woods. It's.
Preservatives. Oh, OK, right.
Preservatives in food and thingslike that.
Yeah. So we went through this whole
(14:39):
food thing that really, you know, I had the theory on
Raspberry drinks. Oh yeah, that was a big thing
with hyperactive kids. Yeah, it's the Raspberry
cordial. Yeah, yeah.
And people come up with the weirdest ideas.
Oh, drink this. This is herbal tea with.
Yeah, whatever. Were they prescribing medication
back then? Yes, what they want to prescribe
(15:01):
you was like Prozac and Valium types of no.
Calm you down. Yeah, yeah.
Calm you down So what does that do Do.
Oh yeah, I come brain dead. Well, that's.
The crazy thing, the meds I'm onnow and you've.
Got a? Stimulant.
To active brain, you've got to do something.
You need to be a center of attention.
(15:25):
What? Yeah.
You said you weren't going to say that.
I know. Go to kinder.
You know, a kindergarten? Oh, you always had to be at the
front of the class, really. And then all the girls sat
around you. Really.
(15:45):
Hi, hi, you're. Pulling the chicks in mate.
Yeah, must have been the hair. Yeah.
I can't think of anything else. But the the whole thing with
playing sport was a teamwork thing.
Could you like to be an individual?
But you need to have teamwork. You've got to be even on radio.
(16:08):
It was a time when you were out there thinking you were island
on your own. Oh yeah.
A time. But who was backing up?
There's a producer. There was a from the
receptionist at the front. It's a funny one because I look
back on, you know, if I had beenmedicated from way back, I don't
(16:29):
think I would have ended up where I did.
Yeah. We agree.
We agree with that like. My psychiatrist when I was
talking to him about this, got to the end of the hour first
meeting with him. God that was funny.
He goes believe when he said it.He goes huh?
Oh, you're an interesting one. OK.
(16:50):
I got to write a paper on this. I'm like, I'm pretty sure you
see a lot of people. You're an interesting 1 you.
Guys, you've essentially forged an entire career out of your
ADHD. And I was like.
That's interesting, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't go and work in
(17:13):
a store or do one of those jobs where you just turn up, do the
job, go home. Yeah, it was.
Radio's so creative. You're getting those dopaminies.
Well, we know instantly, starting from the beginning of
radio. You know when you started, the
first thing was. Work experience.
Yeah, work experience. Yeah.
And they came home and went. I know what I want to do.
(17:37):
And they got a part time job in there.
You made the coffee. Don't even know to make coffee.
And you got a machine. Still don't mind you?
I don't remember what my first jobs in there at BOP FM, I had
to type up the Win at Work questions for Sally Cook and
they asked me can you type and which?
Yeah, never typed. And was it a typewriter?
(17:58):
So it was actually like, put thepaper in.
I did that. And then another one was when
they asked me if I could drive astick shift, God, column shift
on the yeah, they got a new van and they were moving from that
old building to the new one. And I went, yeah, never driven
the column shift thing. Just a can do attitude.
(18:20):
Yeah. And.
But to you was. Brand new, Yeah, brand new.
That whole new white van, I'm Bunny hopping it down, yeah.
Oh boys, hump on. But yeah, they are doing it from
work experience. I remember I wrote to, I've
never brought this up with you before.
I wrote to a guy's name's Kerry Varco and he was doing nights on
(18:45):
Kiwi FM, which I think came out of like Hamilton, and I would
listen to it when my headphones on in the in the evening, I'm
meant to be asleep. And I wrote to him just saying I
really want to get into radio and all that sort of thing.
He sent me a book on how to get into radio and some Kiwi FM
stickers and a card that he wrote a note in, you know, about
(19:07):
following your dreams and, and all that stuff.
That probably really started thewhole thing.
I've looked for him. Oh man, I've looked so hard to
find Kerry Varco. Yeah, he'd have no idea what the
impact he had on someone's life by writing that card and sending
out a ball. Yeah.
That was. A defining moment and the second
(19:29):
defining moment was I want to leave school.
I don't think that was my choiceso much.
Yeah, that's. The school school was the best.
Do you know I have not been in afight since that last day of
school? Not one fight.
Suspended 3 times for fighting angry little man and I haven't
had a fight. Not one since my last day of
(19:49):
school. I don't think school was for me.
Mr. Druck Drucker. Oh, Ducker.
Brian Ducker. Ducker, yeah.
Ducker. Yeah, they are.
You'll never be anything. I heard that a lot.
Had that a lot and I still the school is not for everybody,
School reports. No.
No, if he only annoying, self annoying, yeah, yeah.
(20:14):
I don't want to apply myself. I mean, I don't need to apply
myself. I passed.
What's the past No 50? School reports towards AAA AAA,
AAA, but Roy comments at the bottom were definitely.
Not like I don't think I did well, did I in class?
Some grades, grades were fine. Grades are fine, but what up
(20:36):
Your actions in the classroom was annoying, yeah.
Yeah, you you'd go into the classroom, get your work done in
about 10 minutes and. Everybody, hey.
Yeah. I'm trying to do something.
Pissed to there. So you got in so much trouble
constantly. Yeah, yeah.
As I do with that. I'd be finished for work and
then. You and your you and your bloody
(20:59):
mate, Tony. Yeah, yeah, funny.
And he would always be the one getting in trouble because he'd
be cracking up laughing and the teacher just look up.
He'd laugh at 2 flies, wasn't it?
Wasn't me when you said I want to leave school, I said you've
got 24 hours so you'd come to the scrap yard.
(21:19):
Yeah, the dad was. Riding on your bike?
Dad was working in a scrap yard at the Scrap Metal place.
Cool. And I said, well, you can leave
school, but you gotta have a job.
So you got 24 hours or you come here dirty hands?
Oh, no, thank you. Yeah, I had a job the next day.
(21:39):
Yes, it did. Working in a survey and still
part time at the radio station that was going through all of
that to while I was at school. And you ran the streets with the
milk crate? Yeah.
I think that would have been my first job, yeah, I was like 13,
I think. So that was the funniest one.
We built a new house and at the time, every dollar counted.
(22:00):
And we're standing there, had a great view out over the street.
And we're standing there and telling them, sorry, the budget
does not see an allowance. And I think you were getting 5
bucks a week out of us. Yeah.
Oh, my God, what am I going to do?
And coming up the road, Doo, Doo, Doo Doo, it's a maltman.
(22:21):
Go down or see that guy down thedriveway.
Saw the man. Bruce, Bruce.
Nichols, Bruce. Yeah, yeah.
And what was the other dude's name?
Oh, yes, Colin, Colin, yeah. Bruce and Colin, they were two.
Totally here. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, after the milk crown, there was radio.
I worked in a sports store for one day.
And lived in the caravan. And stuff.
(22:42):
Oh yeah. Tried to burn it down.
God, that's right. Electric blanket.
Electric blanket. Burst into flames in front of my
face. Yeah.
Yeah oh such a little bogan too just down there yeah Led
Zeppelin I think was my I love playing down there full circle.
Hey here I am back in a caravan.King Gabba might have Chan have
(23:04):
been big supporters of the pod Dan podcast right from the start
and you get all the stuff from them that you'd expect to You
get plans, you'd get all the Weber stuff.
You get all the steel gear, the amazing principal kitchens, but
it's the stuff that you don't expect like we.
Had an elderly lady come into the store and she brought her
remote control from her television and she didn't know
(23:25):
how to get it to work and we opened it up and saw that she
just needed new batteries. And then she told me that her
husband had recently passed away, so he was the one that did
all that stuff for her and she didn't have anybody around to do
that, so she needed us. So we put batteries out of the
packet and put them in the remote and we helped her out and
made her day. That's what she got.
(23:46):
And the mighty helpful King Campbell Minor Gen.
Have you been to Guandalin Bowling Club?
They're right there on the shores of Lake Macquarie.
They do delicious meals upstairsin the Four Shore Bistro and
Cafe which is run by the Dish Catering Group.
So you know it's good stuff and you can dine out on the balcony
looking out over the lake. It is beautiful.
(24:06):
They got the cute little 4 shorekiosk for a coffee and snacks
right by the jetty. The entertainment's top notch.
They got Friday night seafood raffles and Sunday sessions with
live music in the beer garden. You want to find out what's
happening at the club? Check out their Facebook page or
visit gwadalanbowlingclub.com dot AU podcast with.
(24:27):
Rabbit. So I said at the start that
Jordan's probably going to be moving out by the end of this
year and it's been good because his, my girlfriend is down in
Sydney and so he's, we barely even know when he's in the house
or not anyway, So it's been a bit of a buffer.
If it happens suddenly, that'd be hard.
(24:48):
It'd be weird not having him around and stuff.
So, and we're thinking about that and, you know, and then
Tiana's, I don't know, sometime in the next 5 years maybe then
just back to just seven. I, they're gonna be thinking
about what it was like for you guys.
You've had the four kids, by theway.
Which one's your favorite? Let's do Dave do it.
(25:10):
The other 3 will get upset. What was his name?
No, I'm right here because they might see it and they.
Lived home a long time ago. What was the order of us moving
out of home? 4 kids so Sue was.
First she went to Auckland. Two years older than me.
Finished in nursing, went to London for 11 years.
Came back with her husband and her daughter.
(25:32):
And then you went and came back.You went.
How old was she when she went, like, to London?
Did she finish school? Oh.
Yeah, yeah, OK. Give us bright.
Good than some of your kids do. I just knew.
When to get out? Yeah.
When they told me. And they told you to get out of
that. No, it wasn't you that went in
(25:52):
there. You put the fellow in there,
didn't. You what?
In a bin? Yeah, yeah.
It's just terrible. It was a thing that was done at
that school, binning people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Terrible, I know. Terrible.
Funny at the time, Yeah. Terrible.
It's still funny. You see what?
It's still funny. You're still funny.
(26:14):
No, these days it. Was a very naughty boy.
These days, folding other kids from the school in half into a
big bin, Yeah, is not funny anymore.
OK, but so. OK, so she finished school and
then did all her nursing stuff and then went over there.
So it wasn't. So see, she went to a nursing
home as a hero. Well, what do you call I?
(26:35):
Don't know what you called them back.
Then like just a help. Yeah, again.
And after about a month or two in there, the head nurse that
was here at times, you've got natural ability for.
Yeah. And then put her on the path.
I say about like those kind of jobs, nurses and that it's a
certain type of person. Like I couldn't do it.
I could study and get the qualifications and do all that,
(26:58):
but it's I don't. Want the want of caring?
Yeah, the things they wipe up and things that they do it.
Nope. And one of the grateful that
there are people that do. Yes.
One of the actual things she hadto do was she had an old lady
die and she had to dress her so the family could come in and
(27:18):
look. Now in her lifespan of working
or anything, she had nothing to do with death.
Yeah. And then come away from that
with I did a good job. And I want to do this for a
career. I think what you'd take out of
something like that, like she would have seen the family and
seen what she was able to do forthem.
(27:40):
Yeah, extend the the warmth, Yeah, the love.
Yeah, amazing. I love that she stayed with
that. Yeah.
All through all of that. Yeah.
And then I was in, out, in, out,in.
You keep rolling the door. Yeah.
I climbed through a window. Yeah.
But we did have one incident with you, and that was you were
living in Napier on the radio there.
(28:02):
Oh, yeah. And you thought to a surprise
visit back to Taronga. Come to place we're staying at.
No one here. Where'd you where'd you go?
You always threatened to. Yeah.
Move when I each time I left. And we did.
We did. Really.
I came to do a. Surprise with him.
You'd moved. Yeah.
(28:23):
Didn't tell me we. Went to run a roll.
Oh, man, I'm gonna process that later on.
It's funny now. Yeah, Yeah.
Tonight, when I'm lying in bed, I'm gonna go.
Yeah. They moved and didn't tell me.
Pretty sure we had phones back then.
Yeah, no, they were on the wall.Yeah, yeah, that's right.
(28:44):
Yeah, yeah. And someone was on it down the
hallway. Took the big long lead down and
underneath the bedroom door to get off the phone.
Mum. I'm on the phone.
I could. I heard you pick that up.
Yeah. And so then Nat and Vinnie, so
my younger brother and sister, they're twins and five years
younger than me, so they were still there for a while.
(29:06):
Who went last? I think Nat was the last to
leave. Because I'm just trying to
picture the thing of that momentand just wondering what that's
like because we know it's comingfor seven I where there's just
the two of us rattling around inthe in the house, that moment
when the kids move out. And sort of leave and go and
(29:27):
come back. Yeah, Vince did.
He went away, came back. See, girls are different.
The maturity is different. Oh, I'm well.
With and, well, we'll move. I was just saying yesterday how
mature and how Tiana has just got her head on straight.
She's just she's and I'm like like more mature than I am now
(29:47):
or will ever. Be maybe, yeah.
Boys, go out. Let's go and party, yeah?
Yeah. OK.
So there was not like a moment of when someone left and then
it's just the house is empty andquiet and yeah.
Well, there was a moment and that was a defining moment for
us to come to Australia. I came home and mum would cook
(30:10):
this big dinner up and I said just enough to feed four people
here. You know, how about we go to
Australia cause and then she goes.
We've got food. Yeah, let's go.
So boom, we'd gone. We'd already cashed up and so
we're moving on. Yeah, it took a long time for me
to get the meal smaller. Yeah, it's just was in my, you
(30:32):
know, every time it was a big. Six of us.
Yeah. And it's a lot of Mashed potato.
You got it was get mate. We go through this on nights
when and it happens quite often,Tiana will be out at dance or at
a friends place or something, Jordans at work or out with his
mates and Savile say it's just the two of us for dinner.
I'm like, it's not worth like making anything.
Yes, I'll have toast. Yeah.
(30:53):
And that's, yeah, quite my nail for us too.
Yeah, yeah, I had Rogan Josh andrice last night.
There's little Woolworths meals.Throw it in the microwave for 4
minutes. Yep, job.
Done. Yeah, it's over easier.
Quite different to cooking for the whole family, he says.
Like. Don't let Julie hear that.
I Yeah. The microwave meals, they're
(31:13):
fantastic. And so did you move over to
Australia to be with the family?No.
No. No, just time for us to do our
don't think yeah, OK, because everyone else.
Were you worried that I would turn up again?
Ohh no, you were you've. Got We've already been up to
Brisbane. Yeah, when you were up there.
(31:35):
OK. That was about 12 months
previous. Yeah, right.
Wasn't there for very long. And you were jumping on the bus
to Griffith. 20 hours on the busfor the job interview, 20 hours
on the bus and that was back to Surface Paradise.
Got the phone call saying yeah, you've got the job, come on back
down. Basically went back up, packed
our bags because we moved to Australia with only a pack on
(31:57):
our backs. No plan, no idea what we're
doing or anything. And then back on the bus again
for the 20 hour trip. For that one, they paid my fare.
For the interview, I had to pay my own, so I had to pay my bus
fare. And then when I got the job,
they paid mine but didn't pay sales.
And that was 20 hours. We arrived in Leighton, it was
0. Degrees singing the song The
(32:19):
wheels on the Bus, round and round.
Stopping in the middle of the night, you know they'd stop and
do those toilet breaks or whatever and you'll get off off
the bus. I remember this old timer
standing there and pointing out all the stars.
You know what the Sky's like when you're out.
Oh yeah. Oh.
Yeah, yeah. Bloody fuse.
Oh. Magical.
(32:40):
Yeah. And he was pointing out, you
know, Orion's Belt, and that's the, you know, all these things
that I remember that so clearly.It was great.
Yeah. To wrap this one up, let's get a
bit of advice from some elderly folk.
That's you guys that. Sounds.
Like a bit of advice. What is one piece of advice that
your own parents gave you that is stuck with you?
(33:02):
Because I've got a Ripper from PUD.
You know what it is? You go on.
Eat your vegetables and no, nothing that sensible.
I would quite often have to bring this up all the time.
You know, Dad always said man can't run with no legs.
(33:24):
It was tackling advice for him, rugby, but that line had stuck
with me forever. Man can't run with no legs.
And then that, what was his name?
Oscar Pretorius as it is his name and he's got those things.
And I was like, Oh well, that just wrecked my dad's saying he
does quite well. My kids know Jordan and every
(33:46):
single time man can't run with no legs.
Nope. Well.
I don't remember the time when you said it.
I know it was about rugby and itwas about tackling.
Get him around the legs, man. Can't run with no legs.
Yeah, and the way you said it, maybe that's profound.
Hold on to that forever. Can you think of anything?
From Never make the same mistaketwice.
(34:09):
Oh, and we're all guilty of that.
Oh. Yeah, there was one I heard a
while ago, we set on Airwest, I think it was on here with Gina.
And the timing of it was perfect.
It was quite amazing. They were pulling all the stuff
out of the radio station, doing a whole bunch of renovations.
And there was this like a motivational quote kind of thing
stuck on the wall behind this volume, been there forever.
(34:30):
And we were just thinking about doing a new segment on the radio
where we did like a it was almost like a quote of the day,
something to ponder on to finishup the show each day.
And we'd been talking about should we do it?
Do we finish the show like that?Don't know.
And then during the show, walkedout of the studio, people were
dragging things around. I pulled this filing cabinet
out, saw this thing and went, that's a sign.
(34:50):
Like literally it's a sign. And it was do your best until
you know better, then do better.Wow.
Because you will make mistakes. You do dumb stuff.
I've got this. And then if you can learn from
it and do better. I thought that was amazing.
Do your best until you know better, then do better.
(35:11):
Never be afraid to change midstream because some things
just don't fit people. Yeah, If you start doing
something and you go, this is great, maybe not quite me, and
I'll persevere and it's going South.
Get out of it. Yeah, Move on.
That's too short. I'm.
(35:32):
Yeah, I've done it many a time. Yeah, I know you have the number
of jobs that you had and all thedifferent things that that you
did. Remember that, but always
looking for the next thing. Always looking for the something
else. Yeah.
And making that thing work. Yeah.
Until it didn't, and then you make something else work.
Yeah, yeah, there's always something else around the
corner. There really is.
(35:54):
I'm on this whole thing at the moment.
It's like why we just went to Thailand.
It was, you know, we sold our house over in Adelaide and
that's what's enabled me to do this, to do the pod band over
the last, over that first year of doing it, I was making a
little bit of money but not a drop in the ocean compared to
what I was making on radio and you know, bank balance was just
going backwards. If we hadn't sold that house in
(36:18):
Adelaide, which we'd held onto for 12 years, we built that over
there and it's been renting it out all the time.
If we hadn't sold that, there's no way I'd be able to do this.
It was kind of just like a backstop for me to build
something through that time. Didn't have that.
I would have had you know, a timeline of like 6 months.
If it's not making money by thenor something, then I gotta go
(36:38):
and get a job. There's nothing to say that we
couldn't sell the house that we live in now and buy one of them
big fancy caravans and you're travelling around Australia.
Let's try it. I love seeing you guys getting
out with your caravan and just going away for the weekend,
doing all those kind of things. We we like the water.
I'm very attracted to water. I don't swim in that butt.
(36:59):
No, kind of the same on that. I probably got that from you.
I find it so centering. So I get on the beach and yeah,
you feel the weight come off theshoulders.
Just stand there and stare at the water.
Even if we go in the Bush and there's a little Creek or
whatever, yeah, I wander off quite often.
Oh. What are you doing down there?
(37:20):
Yeah, on your own. You're at an age now where you
can't go wandering off. Put out some sort of alert.
No, no, no, no, no, no. No, I, I heard actually it was
in the book I was reading last night and the cop says they've
put out a Silver Alert. It's Bartney.
It was a Silver Alert. It's like when one of the oldies
goes wandering off and they always find them, but they're
down. Such as?
That's a little Silver Alert. It's hilarious.
(37:42):
It's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one.
So you can put those out. Now put one.
I'm gonna stop doing a little wander around.
I really like this question. I went looking around online for
a good questions to ask your parents, and I love that we're
getting to do this because this is a little time capsule for me
and it's been great to hold ontoforever.
(38:04):
There was a point at one stage with the pod van where I was
going to do that memory lane thing.
Yep, we're talking about that. And basically, parents come in,
kids come in, the kids can ask the parents questions, and you
hold onto that video forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it really captures that moment at that time.
And so I went looking for questions around that.
And I'll finish with this one. If you could go back and have a
(38:25):
30 minute conversation with yourselves the day before you
became parents, what would you talk about to yourself?
Oh. Shit.
I don't know. Heavy for a last one.
We just be parents. Yeah, 'cause that's the thing.
Just do it. Yeah.
You don't know what you're doing.
No, you make a million. Here's the book.
(38:47):
Book. Yeah.
Yeah. And every nucleus in that
family, yeah, there's something different.
Oh. Totally.
Yeah, Yeah. There is really nothing you
could go back and say to yourself ahead of.
Yeah, you could probably go watch out for the second one.
There's something you'd like to change along the way, but Lotto
(39:10):
results. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But anything that you do then that changes everything that
leads up to where you get to now.
Yeah. You've got to make that question
answer it yourself. Mum's getting distracted by
puppies out the back of the pod van now, so she's getting it
wandering off. We'll have a Silver Alert any
minute now. More than four.
(39:31):
Thank you so much for jumping inand doing this for the that all
200th episode. I've got four more pages of
questions. Is that all?
Well, you had 1/2 hour nap in the middle of it so you guys
need coffee. So we better go and get.
That podcast with Rabbit.
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