Captain Jason Chambers

"I love being in the unknown"  - Captain Jason Chambers

In this episode of Three Food Memories, Savva drops anchor with Captain Jason Chambers of Below Deck Down Under.

On the menu is: apple cake, dumplings, and tapas. 

Sides include:  the making of a man shaped by the sea, a spirit drawn to adventure and discovery, building a resort in the Phillipines, and musings on fatherhood to his daughter Saskia. 

Jason's social cause is Classroom of Hope, whose mission it is to construct sustainable schools using upcycled materials. Through their Block Schools program, they create earthquake-resistant educational facilities while removing 1-2 tons of plastic waste from the environment per classroom.

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
Insta - @savvasavas @threefoodmemories

Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the ground we stand on, and I thank them for allowing Papa to tell stories on these glorious lands we share.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Our guest on this episode of Three Food Memories is what happens when Australia produces a man with sea legs, a soft heart, and a countenance that has caused distraction worldwide. Best known as the quietly commanding captain of Bravo's below deck down under, this seafarer drops anchor with a kind of strength, steadiness and warmth that speaks to a life lived fully, bravely and with intention. Whether steering a super yacht through chaos or speaking of his daughter he adores, he feels less like a TV personality and more like the real deal. The Zaddy of the Sea, the Aussie male answer to Severe Vegara. Captain Jason Chambers, welcome to Three Food Memories. Welcome, welcome. It's not until I did this that I had to I found out what Zaddy was, until I did the blow deck. Now I described you as the Australian male answer to Severe Vegara.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

I'll take that.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

No, and the reason why I did that, so we know that Sophia Vegara is beautiful, she's got presents and all the rest of it. So very authentic. Very authentic too. Um, but you drop her back in Colombia and she is all over the place. There are there are lots of hers. And I when I think of you, when I see you on television, I think, wow, there's so many Aussie blokes in this country who are like you. What is it like coming back and being with your own tribesmen?

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Uh it's easy with 11-year-old daughter anyway. She shoots me down in flames straight away. So uh it's look, I I I live in Bali, I spent 10 years in the Philippines uh building a place there. My daughter grew up there. I I I I was I was driving large yachts overseas for some big Australians too, but I gave all that up to work in Asia and work in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, all these remote places. So I've actually been humbled early before the tow before the TV show. I've actually been uh I understand reality and and what it's like. I've seen it. So I've gone from caviar in Saint Trepay to you know rebuilding hospitals and and schools on trips in Papua New Guinea. So I'm I've gone through my ego, I've gone through all that. Um I'm in a bit I'm in a good spot now. I think 25 years ago I would have been coming back with this TV show and I would have been pounding my chest, like, look at me, look at me. I probably would have been, I don't know. But now that I've had a daughter and I'm a different person and I'm changed, I'm I don't see it as much as what do you think that the the the show has arrived at a right time in your life, the right time? Totally, totally. Yeah. Look, we we we all grow as people and as leaders and captains and managers. No one teaches you to be a manager. That's something you have to learn and you have to experience. So I have gone through my years of trying to teach myself on the water as being a not only a a captain but uh as a manager, and it came at the right time. I'm a totally different person when it comes to leadership. I actually want to lead through empathy, not through yelling and screaming. And I think yelling and screaming and and trying to have that tone over people to try and um command authority, that comes from an experience of not knowing what you are doing yourself.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

So where is home? Is it the sea? Is it behind the telescope in front of the camera? Australia, Bali?

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Look, at the moment, I know this is it's with my daughter, really. It's I've got to change that mindset a little bit. I know that uh look, I gave up yachting for two years because I didn't see my daughter for two years, and that's when Blow Deck knocked on the door and I took it on, and I thought, why not? My crew convinced me to do it, and I thought, well, I'm just gonna be with my daughter for two years to get back the two years I've lost. So every season I'm doing now, and we're up to four four seasons out now. It's a it's a year I can spend with my daughter. I want to change that. I'm starting to try and do something in between with a purpose, and that's what I'm moving on to some new ventures now that will actually try and fulfill some more gaps in the year for me. But at the moment, I'm just very comfortable with my daughter. She's 11 now, she's moved from an island girl growing up in the Philippines. She's Australian, but she's moved from an island girl to um to Westfield Shopping Centre to Mecca to Mecca and Sephora. It didn't take long.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

She's uh So her daddy's her daddy's no longer number one. It's right, daddy's credit card comes. Yeah, it's it's there.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Yeah, she she she has got that wonderful um I use that word empathy a lot, but she has got that Filipino feel because she's Australian, but she grew up on a very remote island and um she wants to share and give and she doesn't want too much and she doesn't try and take. She's she is a good she's a beautiful child.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

She's daughter of the future. I think that's what a a child of the future, I think that's what the future kids are going to be. They don't need as much as the generations before them.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

I think that's what we've given her though. We've uh you know, we I threw everything away to build a resort in the Philippines which took one step forward, three steps back, trying to be accepted in this little village, fishing village. Uh our gateway to being accepted was our little daughter running around naked at two years of age, and then everyone just falling in love with her, and then they understood that we're we're not going anywhere. We're, you know, we are foreigners and we're we're here to stay and we want to build and and provide employment. But uh they taught us uh the love of m taking my daughter out at low tide to get seaweed for for l for dinner, you know, to to collect the pippies for for lunch, you know, to to see the fresh fish coming in off the boat and and seeing what reality is and my daughters witness it firsthand. And how does that feel to be connected to her in that capacity? Oh good. Yeah, look, I see I see it in her every day. I see it at school with her friends, I see it at sleepovers. I mean, she is that child that doesn't want to have more than others. If she has, she wants to share it equally.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

So So Bravo. Now I'm gonna admit I don't know anything about the show. I don't watch it, I don't watch anything Bravo. I I just see it every now and again appear voluntarily in my feeds. What is Bravo's Below Deck Down Under?

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Well, this uh it's it's a reality TV show about uh super yachts, and I'm a captain on a super yacht, I have been for uh 25 years now, and and there's a lot that goes on below deck, you know, with the crew. We've got uh you always got galley dramas, you've got uh guest dramas, and and in a nutshell, a good charter season on a yacht, say in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, might be about um five five months and might be about eight charters. We do nine charters in six weeks. For the series. Yep. So the crew are exhausted, they're trying to get to know each other, they turn up to the boat. I don't know the crew, uh, I don't know the boat, so I've got my own challenges, and that's the recipe or the ingredients for a good reality show. But as the show goes on, the audience gets to understand the crew working together and and individually as a people, but then trying to work together and trying to get this service out because it is five-star service.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Did you have a connection to uh reality TV before this? Did you were you a consumer of it in any capacity?

SPEAKER_03 7:27

No, not really. We obviously in the industry no below deck, uh we frowned upon it. And then when I got a phone call or an email, I I spoke to my crew about it and they said, just do it. I'm like, I I didn't really want to do it, I just wanted to take time off work to be with my daughter, but I thought, what's six weeks? I'll get a little cash and um take off. And then we did uh a year later, they asked me to come back and do another season, but the first season hadn't gone on air yet, so there was no uh negotiations for really more cash, so I did another season and I thought, well, I'm just gonna do it anyway. So you weren't able to s you weren't able to look back on the first series, were you? Not at that time, I was seeing myself. I couldn't, yeah, until as I was doing the second season, the first one was coming out, and I was like, I was trying not to watch that because I'm actually back on the boat into it. And so now we're up to season four and things are looking a little bit more promising financially, and I can do a lot more uh with my platform now, which I am doing.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

And um What did season three look like for you? How did you actually correction? How did you go into season three having watched season two in season one?

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah. I our first seasons were in Australia, it was down under, it was a franchise down down um in Australia, and I I think they wanted Woodlike to have kept it down under, whether it be under the equator, which they're trying to do. Uh, but there is not many uh cruising grounds in Australia that are favourable for the show. There's so much logistics that go goes with it. We have we have another boat to follow us. We have their production team have to come in with the hours of rest and sleep and shift change. So there was only really two places to cruise. Um, so that was a really good moment for me to showcase Australia. But our season was kind of just at the end of COVID too, so it was a little bit of trying to get a new a new franchise, all new captain, all new crew, and it it was just more of a growth uh series, which is great, which I didn't mind, and I've tried to keep keep that theme. So looking back on it, I actually kind of am proud of our franchise. It's not just all love drama, and it's actually there is actually stories about people trying to work together in this industry and work through their personalities or through their quirks or other people's quirks and trying to understand um personas.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

And so now they're trying, I've been again through watching on the socials, I've been watching them try to feed this below deck down under into the Bravo verse. What are they calling it? The Bravo verse, yeah. So how does that so how does that morph into or how do you drawn into that?

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Well, now we've gone from Australia, we went to Seychelles this season now that Son is in the Caribbean. Yeah, the people are saying, Where's the down under in it? So I'm just gonna have to own it. I'm the I'm from Australia, so now down under theme is just because I'm the captain, I'm from down under. So this is a reality show.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Are you able to be your real self on it?

SPEAKER_03 10:21

You have no choice. You have no choice.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Can you save anything back?

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Anyone, anyone that does, it comes out. Right. You know, with the hours of work, the amount of pressure, a crew probably come in there with a with a facade thinking this is how I'm going to be perceived, and this is how I want to be perceived. But you know, it's like anything. You know, you get fatigued, you get uh you know get overworked and everything. And they're allowed to go out after each charter and celebrate a little bit too, so they let their guards down. So it all comes out after about two or three charters, you can't hide it. And the thing is the cameras go away. They're so they're so good at their job. These franchises have been going for 12 years now, and the camera crew are just there's cameras in the ceiling, but there's also five camera crew and sound crew following you around, and they just disappear. They're right there, but we're doing our job. I remember the first episode, first charter, sorry, I had in the Wit Sundays. I turned up and we had oil bursting out of a pipe everywhere, we didn't have a bow thruster, we had the tide going out, and they're saying, Well, we can't leave for this charter because we don't have a bow thruster. I'm like, Well, I don't care. I'm I'm driving it out of here. We're gonna go, well, you how can you do that? I'm like, I don't need a bow thruster. We there's other ways. So that's just a an assistance. It's not uh it's not a requirement for me. And and then you just realise you've got to get on with your job as a captain. So the cameras go away very quickly.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

And then and so then what happens when you kind of go, fuck it, I just don't want these cameras. Do you have that option and go, you know what? I just need to get out of this because I'm going to lose my marbles.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Uh look at that that happens, you know, that happens. And I do get the option because my cabin doesn't have cameras in it, but the cruise cabins do have cameras in it. So I do have a little bit of leniency and a little s escape mechanism. But every season there's always this low period that we all go through. And um you've got to break through it.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Jason, is it worth it?

SPEAKER_03 12:18

I at the moment it is, yeah, definitely. It teaches me something about myself. What do you learn? So last season I had a I had a bad lead up into it. Um mum had um heart surgery, then she broke her femur, she had uh another hip replacement uh operation. The dad uh had a stroke, and then his Alzheimer's got diagnosed. I had melanoma taken out, had to wait three weeks for that biopsy. So that was two cuts. Kick going on. That was two cuts. My best mate passed away in a horrific accident. And then I was um then I had to race back and see my daughter for ten days before I took off and uh did six weeks. So I knew I wasn't in the right position to go into this season, but I knew I was strong enough to get through it. But I remember halfway through I just lost it in my cabin and just like um like I I'm I'm I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go. But you you you know, you you learn something about yourself, you get back up and you've got to set an example and uh because you are the captain of the boat, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Right. So you are the leader of the ship.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah, and we're you look to be quite honest, what I just described to you happens to a hell of a lot of uh crew in our industry, you know, they're cruising around the world, they're missing weddings, they're missing funerals, they're missing birthdays, they're missing their families, and they're at sea, they can't go anywhere. So it actually is a part of our part of part of our industry.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

So the thinking that the whole potentially the whole world has access to your everyday, how does that make you feel?

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Um I don't really think of it too much at the moment. Um at the when I'm when I'm doing a show, it's obviously I'm just locked in to do the show for six weeks. I don't even think about what this season's going to look like in a year's time. I'm just trying to get through every charter and trying to make sure the crew can get through this as my look. I keep things pretty simple, and that's why I don't try and give the crew too many tasks they require. I don't try and make these big lists of things I want from a crew member. The only things I want from a crew member is uh put 100% in, you know, work hard, be respectful to your crew, and we're gonna be a family and have fun, you know. And and that and if you break any of those, like that's that's a concern. But if you make all these rules and requirements and structure, like just let's just get back to basics. Are you working as hard as you are can? You know, are you being respectful for your to your crew member? Are you understanding their different cultures, religions, quirks, you know? And you know, rather than judging them, are you really start starting to become friends with them and having fun and understand those and let's be a family about it? And if you just keep it to those little things, it's a it's you no one can deny those. That's what we should, that's what we need. So, what are the best things about reality TV? Um You know, it's that's a simple question for me right now. With father, with my father with Alzheimer's and what I had with mum. Um, I've been traveling the world for 30 years on the yachts, but they've never really understood what I do. So now they're watching me on TV, what I've actually talked about for many years. So I think that's the best best thing that this show's given me and my family is that they can sit back and just like dad can, you know, have a bit of a you know a dad moment and you know be proud and and mum as well and sit there and just go, that okay, I understand what he does now. And not you know, not many people know what their you know what their children really do. You know?

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Do you mum and dad, do you know what I really do? So, okay, so when I see you on the screen, the bits that I again pop up into my feed, you have a very commanding presence. But in the preparation for today's chat, I've also sensed a real softness of character in you and a genuine care for others. That's always been there, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Yeah, I'm I've always been a pleaser. I know that, which has probably got me in trouble in relationships a lot. And that's uh probably why I'm single now. I'm trying just trying to please my daughter at the moment and not give uh too much any promises that I can't fulfil. Are you pleasing yourself, Jason? No, I no, I'm not. And that's where 2026 I kind of want to make some change. The year of the pleasing, Jason. It is the year of the okay, yeah of the horse. Um yeah, that that yeah, I I can be honest about that. I mean I know I've been selfish. Uh and selfish, how can you be a pleaser and a selfish in that been selfish to myself?

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

You know, I know that I've been I've been putting myself to the side to try and rebuild uh a new career out of this, not be at sea, but be with my daughter and see where this can go. And and I haven't had time for relationships or anything like that. But I think 2026 now is a time where I can see my daughters get into that age. Um, I'm starting to feel it that I can I have got space for other other things in life. What does that feel like? Feels good, it's exciting. You know, I love I love being in the unknown. I'm I've I've I've done so many things. I'm a mechanic and a plumber, I played professional rugby league, I've traveled for years, I've been an engineer and a captain. I I don't mind changing things. Right. And so where where would this person fit into your life? On a boat somewhere, free free diving in some remote island. Um, yeah, I I want someone to have some adventure with me, you know, someone that actually understands that I my priorities are my daughter, and um I've got still got a you know a lot to live and a lot to do, and and well we've got a crazy ride ahead and let's go.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

We've got a crazy ride ahead with your three food memories, but before we get into them, what are you like in the kitchen?

SPEAKER_03 17:39

I would say that I was uh I was moving in in an upward proje uh trajectory until um I met the mother of my child who was a chef and I got critiqued a lot, so I kind of got out of the the galley. But I really it's hard in Bali because food's so good, there's so many restaurants. But I actually just moved into a villa last two months ago with a good kitchen so I can actually be more, you know, more proactive in the galley. Because I if I have the equipment and I've got the galley, I I'm more than happy to.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

You've posted a few sort of cooking videos, haven't you?

SPEAKER_03 18:12

They're very uh daughter-friendly meals.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

I've had you know, like But the intention, you're really focused on them. What's going on in those videos?

SPEAKER_03 18:21

There are yeah, look, they're that though those meals that I've started cooking, they're just all from what my daughter requires, what requests, you know. What does she want? If she wanted a cottage pie, I'll make a cottage pie. But I try and keep food a bit simple. Um proteins and you know, something. I I want everything to be my two-pan thing. I'm moving into the air fryer now. I love the air fryer. I want to just I just want to get well equipped of an air fryer. Like every Kurazi bloke. Less less cleaning is best. One pan, one plate. Rotto. The first food memory is the apple pie. Apple pie. Anything with a crumble, I can't go past. If I'm at a if I'm at a restaurant and they ask do you want dessert? We always say no, we don't want it, but we but we really do.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

If they've got uh the first thing you look at on a menu.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

I the first thing I look on a menu is is if I see octopus, I'll go for that. But the apple crumble, has that always apple pie has got something for me. And that I mum worked dad worked a few jobs growing up, uh he's uh he was a journalist, but also worked at night. Mum's a night shift nurse as well. So we were me and my two oldest uh uh siblings, my sisters, we used we used to have to look after ourselves a little bit. And and when we're a little bit bored, would um I'd I'd actually pull out some of grandma's cookbooks that she had. And it was our old brown paper, right handwritten, and um she had a apple cinnamon tea cake that she'd always had that I always would whip up at a minute's notice. And that I was I was good at that. So so that has moved into the apple pie, which is something that I can't go past on a menu.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

No, it's a crumble as well. You speak about if there's a crumble on the bottom, you can't go past explain how that works, because I was trying to visualize a crumble base.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

Well, keel on pie, anything the cheesecake, anything with that crumble base, I'm I'm I'm a sucker for.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Now you grew up on the central coast like I did. Up the road. Up the road. Um there was a factory. I wonder if you don't know about the I know it very well.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

I know it very Serr Lee's the Sara Lee factory.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

The Sara Lee seconds factory. Totally. And it was the Sera Lee's first Australian kitchen. Do you remember that outlet? That was us. Explain to me what you were buying in that outlet.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

It was all it was all it was all the damaged goods, but uh it was so good. Like that was our usually a Thursday afternoon trip out there. And there was another place called Angel Pies. Angel Pies, we did that. And that I did a mechanics plumbership, uh uh apprenticeship, sorry, uh I did plumbing as well, but I did a mechanics apprenticeship in Brian Hilton Toyota in yeah. Cosford. Yeah, and and Angel Pies was up the road. And that had the same thing where you could go up there in the afternoon and get all the damaged ones. I was 15. At 16 after my first year of apprenticeship, I had to change my overalls. I put that much weight on. And then my friends wanted me to return playing rugby league, so I had to start getting into fitness again. I gave up all the pies and uh and the donuts. Too many too much pies.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

And then okay, so let's work. So you went to school up there, you were uh uh you did an apprenticeship as a mechanic. Yep. A plumber. Yes. And then you played professional rugby as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

I got asked earlier to play rugby league and I I just didn't. And I end up um I end up marrying uh a high school girlfriend. Yeah. So I I I look, it wasn't a passion of mine. I only started playing rugby league again to be with my friends. I gave up for a few years, ate too many pies, angel pies. Uh and then I got asked very quickly. I got a contract down in Canberra Raiders and and then I just I was down there for s six months and then I decided not to do it. Uh but I had opportunities at North Sydney, Canterbury, but then um Newcastle uh I actually went and trialed with them and and and did a year in reserve grade. And there was an opportunity there, but there's so many of us that. Could've should've would have made it. Yeah, it back then it was wasn't pay wasn't that great. Actually, I got more money back playing on the central coast than I would have played in Sydney. So you know, to me it wasn't a financial thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

So back to Nana's um cinnamon apple tea cake. Yeah. What were the ingredients in that? Obviously, apple and cinnamon. Yeah, that's about it. Flour, butter.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

That's about it.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

And then you would just whip it up and bake it, and would it be perfect every time, Jason? Always. Loved it.

SPEAKER_03 22:26

I loved it. I I'd always thought I'm just going to have one slice of it and I'd eat it all. I wouldn't share it with my sisters.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

No wonder you had to change the overall. Yeah, I know. And tell me about the curing the boredom. How did cooking cure the boredom?

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Well, yeah, if you're sitting around and as a young child, we're talking in 12, you know, and it's like can't get out, you know. I wanna I want to go play with friends, but my mum's working and we're on school holidays by ourselves, so I've got to stay in the house. So yeah, just sitting around, might as well cook up something.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

So 12 looked like 19, what, 1982 or something like that? 1982.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

That would have been about it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

So on the central, you had two older sisters as well.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Did they cook? They are really good cooks now. Right. They weren't really doing much back then, but they're very good cooks now.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

So when you come across apples and cinnamon, are they do they bring a sense of pleasure and comfort?

SPEAKER_03 23:20

Reminds me of that my Nan's cookbook. Right. And I kind of wish I had that. I'm I'm gonna go look for it again. But it wasn't it was just handwritten uh from God knows when, probably in the forties or thirties. Do you remember her using it? Did you ever see it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh that was Nan would uh I remember Nan used to pick up the the grill plate and get the get the the the lard out and that was the butter instead of butter. She would use the lard from under the drip tray. And what was it what do what would she call it, like lamb chops and things like that? No. Well from the lamb chops, she would actually use the the lard later for her butter and stuff, and just yeah, it's that was interesting. Everyone's looking at it now going, perfect. That's what it will that's what we should be having.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

We should we should be having. So um we've spoken a lot about your daughter with um Saskia, her name is. I want to look at the special daddy-daughter relationship. There's a correlation that I make time and time again that girls marry their father. How much importance do you put in a strong male role model for Saskia?

SPEAKER_03 24:26

I think it's important. I see there's a lot of broken families now, and I I can see the importance that a father has in m especially in my daughter's life. Her look, her mother is is is an amazing mother and and very creative and and sets a very good tone for discipline for our daughter. I'm a typical father where I just want to have she's she's my mate, you know, and I but I I don't have to I don't give her that discipline like a mother does. I I kind of let her make her own decisions, you know, in a way. Like obviously I put my foot down at certain, but she's very good. Like whether it comes to sugar or eating sugar or something, her mother's like a flat no. With me, she'll just take a little bit, then she'll say, No, that's too much, I can't have. So I'm giving her a little bit of string. Yeah. Whereas her mother's setting the boundaries, which is great. And I don't know, between two of us, I think we're we're doing a good job.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

So she's getting at that point where she's going to start developing intimate relationships. How do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_03 25:28

Um yeah, look, I'm excited. I know I just moved to another villa um in Bali because I wanted to be closer her to be closer to her friends. Um so she could have more of a you know interaction after school. And I think one of them's a crush, you know, she's got a little boy and crush, and I and I thought it was pretty sweet, you know. And so, yeah, no, I'm looking forward to the years ahead.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Um Do you approach those do you approach those those situations like do you do you do you have advice to offer her very quietly, subliminally?

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Not just yet. I think that's probably gonna come to her. It hasn't hasn't really sunk in yet. At the moment I'm looking forward to it. She's eleven, but she's really she's really hitting those strides pretty quickly. I think she'll be we're gonna we're gonna have to turn around and she'll be 15 in the 100.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Oh no, yeah, mine are the same age, so I'm just thinking boom. I remember just carrying them second out of the and then here they are just sort of making their own lunch boxes.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

I was having a a a few beers with a mate yesterday, and uh there was uh two kid little kids running around, one of them looked just like Saskia, and she must have only been about 18 months old. I was like, well, that how did that where is where's that 10 years gone?

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Gone. Yeah. Jason, because you you're not you don't live with Saskia's mother, is there a heightened sense of responsibility to show Saskia that families come in all flavours and shapes and spaces?

SPEAKER_03 26:45

Yeah, I think she's been very resilient. Me working away a lot, especially when I was in my early days. Um I was coming and going a lot. Saskia, uh she she understands that. I she has got her I think she's got her own internal mechanisms working for her. She knows that I if if I go it's it's for a purpose, you know. She doesn't she's she's upset, she wants me to stick around, but I I just tell her I have to go. Because she knows there's no other I'm going just for work. Like I don't go to go on a ski trip or a golf trip or anything like that. I'm going to work and then I'll be back. So she knows that that's there. Later on, I hopefully I can say, look, I'm going to have some fun. I can sit down with Saskia and I can talk about jealousy, how you're feeling, why you're feeling like this. She can talk to me about that as well. Like when she's had a problem with someone at school or someone's treating her a little bit, you know, bossy or something like that. She'll tell me, we can talk about that that true emotional feeling that you're feeling, and understand I can say, look, this is going to be here forever. What you're feeling now is an emotion. Don't throw it away, understand it. And she can have these conversations with me and her mother. And I think that's got to do with uh the discipline a mother has set down and but also the boundaries of let's talk and the school she goes to as well. So do you have those conversations with your the other people in the crew? I do actually. I do. Uh I'm allowed I I the crew that really get to know me just don't cross the line. Like you know, I I'm I'm calm, I'm fine, nothing's here I haven't seen before. We'll get through it, it's we're not gonna lose a toe. It's it's okay, let's get on with it. Um okay, you broke that or you stuffed that up, like I learned from it. But when people take that that steadiness or calmness to an advantage and and try and take the piss and then you lose your job, like that happens. You know, I've said to I say to another a lot of people, the quietest axe is the sharpest axe, you know, and I don't go around the t the forest trying to knock down every tree. Like I just I walk through the car forest and clean out what I have to clean out. And does that come naturally for you? Uh no. Though I I I think 20 years ago I I didn't know what I was doing, didn't know how to lead um people. I was 28 when I got my first captain's job. I was I was the engineer on the boat, and the owners like said, Well, the boat didn't sell, we're going to take it to the Mediterranean. I had to look after the boat and clean it and get it ready for showing if it sold. And it was a 33-meter boat through 33 meter boat, which would be a big boat here in Sydney Harbour. And uh they said, We want you to drive. I went, Well, I don't know how. So we'll learn. So there was a good 10 years of me learning how to drive a boat first, and then secondly, how to drive a crew. And and I made many mistakes, like we all do. Like I I was worried one about my position, one about jealousy of being, you know, people, what they thought of me, if I didn't have that authority, or you know, these all these feelings of insecurity about driving a boat around, which you don't know how to drive, and you're trying to learn. So there's then you're insecure about that. It's the you know, imposter syndrome kind of feeling just times ten. Fraud, fraud, fraud. Yes, totally. Uh and then, you know, and then you look back now and it's you've you've I've given up big jobs to take on lesser jobs in more remote locations and teach myself more about navigation in areas that are uncharted like Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and stuff, and and learnt so much more about myself and my abilities that like I feel confident that I'm okay who I am as a captain.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Is there a and you're doing all this now in front of the camera, in front of the world? Is there um is w what does the water like looking out to the sea afford you?

SPEAKER_03 30:42

It's probably the most yeah, it's uh you're talking about literally, yeah from the bridge aspect.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Yeah, what does that what does that give you? That is it's I I would imagine some form of freedom or expanse, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Yes, it's when you're doing crossings and you're and especially when you're gone for days and you're delivering from one location or one region from another region or one one country to another country, and they're the big ones. They're they're the ones where you're buckled down, you're actually got everything locked away, and you you you're judging the weather, you've got it all there and you Because it's all on you, right? Yeah, definitely. And you and then you're pushing off, and that's when it hits you, and you feel that like you're an explorer, you know, you're moving out there, you you know, you're trying to you know predict the weather, the waves, the conditions, and and that's when you get that euphoria of like, yeah, this is in. But I think the best thing about all that is while you're at sea, no manager's gonna email you. Finally, the inbox can get empty, you know, like they know we're here. Yeah, they can't make us do anything, and we're going to we're going to sea for a month. So that is uh one of the best things about crossing is that do you think that's a gift that Mother Nature has given you? Mother Nature's the best thing. Like I've I've done some funny things out there, like with in bad weather, like just jumping up and down to the weather gods and stuff, and you know taking a shirt off here and there just to try and you know, make up some ceremonial thing to try and stop the weather from you know getting bigger than what it is.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

So you're doing deals with Mother Nature, right? Student deals, you gotta talk to it. Is she is she listen or are they listening? I'm here.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

I'm here, you know, I'm still alive, so it's something's happening.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Well you're here to talk about your second food memory. Now, this is one that you share with your daughter, but it takes you back to your own childhood, dumplings.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

Definitely. Things like Sangshua Bao, or not Sangshua Bao, but more the um the Bao Buns and you know the Sha May Shalmay. Yeah. Um that's very much with Saskia. Saskia and I will always go for for the dumplings. Um but growing up, coming to Sydney from the Central Coast was a big trip for us, especially with all the family.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

And if uh Would you do it in the car or on the train? We'd do it in the car. Yeah. It'd be always the co- There was no freeway then, it was just the highway.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Oh, that was a that was a terrible freeway. There's I've got so many car stories going. There's no moony moony bridge, it was like going all the way backwards. Definitely. Um we'd be going junction with uh an airport pickup or somewhere. Or drop off. We were dropping a grandma off or a cousin off, and and we'd always go to Yam Cha Yam Chao and so trips to Sydney were always dumplings. Always punctuated by dumplings. The Yum Chow going around with the family. That was it was an affordable, good feed, and that was to uh that was our our trip into another another world or another country. That was our overseas trip was going to Chinatown. What are some of your favourite dumplings? Well, Saskia's got these ones that she gets in Bali, they're Nutella, they've got Nutella in them. Yeah, she loves them. Yeah, no, I like I I would definitely I love Shao Mai. How do you say it? Shoumai. Shoumai in Philippines Shaomai, yeah, but yeah, it's pronounced. So I love them. Pork and uh they do a truffle, I do I do a pork and prawn.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Ooh, I've started making these little like little thin egg omelets with egg and a bit of merin and soy, and I whip it like so they're really fine, and I make a little dumpling on the fry pan. I then put not uh like a skin on the fry pan and then I put some dumpling mix in that, I fold it over and then I poach them in ginger ginger chicken stock.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

I like the ginger, I like the idea. So we build a resort in the Philippines, just a five-bedroom boutique, one on the beach, and during COVID we had to put a lot of staff off, and one of the staff members, she was a cook. So since COVID, I'd actually paid for her to go through and do her um culinary course in the Philippines. So now she's a chef, but she doesn't work for us, she's got her own little uh bakery stuff going. But I've bought her all the tools and the equipment to make dumplings, like and make them you know mass produced because if the opportunity comes back and I open a little restaurant, it will be a dumplings restaurant in the Philippines, and then she's gonna be my cork. So I've got it all ready.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

You're sitting everyone's you've got everyone lined up waiting for this button. Jason, let's talk about I remember those trips to Sydney from the coast as well, down the down the highway. Let's talk about the anticipation of being in the car and going to another country, you said earlier.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

But that's what it felt like coming down to Chinatown. That was for us to to actually come to Chinatown. They were rough those car trips. But two sisters, two older sisters, no air conditioning, leather seats and an old Renault. Our air conditioning was a face cloth in a bit of water and our and our head stuck out the window. That was air conditioning for us. It wasn't until I got older that I realized that it was I all I had was my sister's sweat on that tablecloth by the time I got to yes. So yeah, we used to always go out to walk or two in the car trip and we'd always break it down at yas, no matter what would come into it. Car gone. It'll all be 40 degrees all the way, all the time. And so which yamcha? Do you remember the yamcha restaurant you went to? Oh, look, I wish I did. I know. I look I I can see it in my face. I'm walking down little 10 degree angle street with a fish tank in the front, uh, and it was on the right hand side going south. I wish I knew it. I can't I I could see it in my face.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

The first time that you the first time that you went to one of these dumpling places.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

I used to go to the same one all the time. Then walk in there, there was a staircase going up to the r up to the top and past the big fish tank.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

And what was the feeling the first time you of of going to a Yum Child restaurant as a kid? Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Well, this is where you can eat as much as you can, so you think, because they're just walking around with it. As a kid, we're just like, yeah, that, that, that, that, that.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

So what did going out look like back at h back on the central coast versus this?

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Oh, for us as kids, oh, fish and chips on a Friday. Right. Down there near the aquatic club. Yeah. And um, what else? That was about it. Fish and chips were a big one. Now there was a Chinese place down near Wyoming we used to go to all the time as well. I can't remember that one. But yeah, fish and chips on a Friday, that was it.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

And so that again, the dumplings, like you're in this restaurant, it's another country, are you just like wide-eyed, just taking it all in?

SPEAKER_03 37:00

And well, that's what I think my daughter would feel now, what I felt. Like I'm talking memories of when I was eleven, she's eleven now. Yeah. And we go and do dumplings together all the time. So my daughter's very well her culinary's gonna her culinary um range is gonna be huge when she grows up. Like her mother is a very good chef, like chef, and um she eats well.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

So I'm gonna look at your your journey thinking backwards from where you are now the life that you experienced to get here. Can we look at growing up on the central coast? What that was like for you. So we're talking the seventh the late late 70s and the whole of the eighties. For me, and I wonder if it's the same for you, it wasn't inspiring, you know. Um, it wasn't expansive, but it was contained and content, and it gave me a quiet hunger for bigger things. Is that what growing up there gave you?

SPEAKER_03 38:00

I I'd have to say yes. Although we there was whether that's the era where we did we didn't have phones, you know. I was just talking to someone the other day that, you know, is I'd get on my skateboard and and and take off for five kilometres to to go and see my mate that may not be at home, you know, and then you find out he's not at home, and then you know, your whole day was wasted getting all the way back, you know, and that it just wasn't like that now. You just you know pick up a phone and check him on the iPad are you at home or come around? Like you didn't know, you know, half the time. And so everything was an adventure, you know, getting on a train, going to Wyoming, catching up with other friends, family friends, or whatever. That was an adventure. But everything seemed a little bit more insulated growing up. Like So insulated in safe or just less well I I think now it's more people's a kid's ability to get around is a lot easier. Yeah. Whether it be transportation, whether it be those silly e-bikes, you know, all that.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Like it's Yeah, right. We had we had public transport. That was one bus every hour, I know. It costs money.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Yeah, you know, and and look, I know we had used to have bus passes back then, but it was it's it wasn't easy. So where you grew up kind of defined uh where you your home was would defined kind of who you were. You know, whether you grew up uh terrible near the water, you know, you're you know, you're a surfer. But I grew up in the town in in Gosford, you know, that was a 11-kilometre bus ride to go to get get to the beach on a Saturday, you know. That was a big task, you know. And we we had parents that you know, m most parents had to work a lot, you know, so uh them driving us to the beach and dropping us off there is wasn't wasn't the norm, you know. Whereas now I think as a parent w we have we give more of that ability, we're not we give more of that ability for our children to go and do different places. I think our ranges of people of friends at at that age are a lot more broader now. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 39:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

I know growing up that all my friends were in my area, you know, and I I did know a lot of other people from playing football against them and later on became very good friends of all them, but growing up in those early teens, you know, what was what was in the next street over was all you had. Jason, was that enough for you? It wasn't, and that's where I'm probably getting to, that if anything, it gave me a it gave me a you know desire to what's out there, you know. We I did get married young and I did have an opportunity to play in Canberra, so I kind of felt that as well. Um but then we had a we had I had a good friend pass away in our um in my early twenties when I was married and that kind of shook me up a little bit, because shook us all up a little bit, and we thought and uh we we thought, well there's there's more to the world here. I I want to go see it. So what was your reference point to more to the world? I think my friend passing away and and the how stoic he was in his passing as well, like how courageous and well equipped and planned his own funeral was that he actually planned. Um he had a he had a range of uh time range that he was going to pass away to because for cancer and and he was only young and he actually planned it himself and showed and that tenacity that he showed during those years and what he showed us or through those months and what he showed us just thought, well wow, that's that's what a courageous human being.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

So do you remember the people that gave you lifelines out into the brave new world?

SPEAKER_03 41:22

It was myself, honestly. I went to Brazil for a month and decided to stay there for a year in South America. I remember getting off a train in in London and asked someone where to go to to find some accommodation. They sent me to Earl's Court. I remember I didn't have enough money to really stay at the places there. I followed three Australian girls into a shop, asked them if they knew of any accommodation. Next thing I'm living with them for a couple of weeks and the guys that they live with and made friends there, and and it's one I hitch-hiked around Middle East for four months from Istanbul to Cairo, and like I I just kept How did you what route did you take? Well, I we we went on a boys' trip when I was plumbing in London, and uh the boys were drinking a bit too much over the last for for a week, and I was like, This I just spent a year in South America. Um this is not my sort of travel theme, really. Oh, I want I want to see things. So I just woke up the next day and said, I'm going to Cairo. My mate said, How are you doing that? And I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna walk. Yeah, so I went down all the way around the coast, uh around Turkey and then into into Syria, Jordan, Israel, and then across to to um to Egypt. And you had to make a decision because you couldn't go to um Lebanon or Iraq or Iran if um you couldn't go through Israel if you'd went to Lebanon, you're uh uh Iraq or Iran. That was kind of one of my biggest regrets. I I don't have many regrets, but not being able to see Iran, because Syria I just loved, uh and and experience Iraq and Lebanon. That's kind of that I I have a regret about that. What did you find discovering meeting these people? Well, Syria was just so beautiful. The history there, like the thing I got to capture, I look, I being in Delphi in Greece, the Delphi ruins, that's kind of what really struck me with the the foundations uh and structure, and I wanted to see more of it, and that's why I want to see the pyramids and and all the ancient. Um I've I need to see Mexico yet, and I haven't done Central America, but Syria was just the the museums, the architecture. Look, uh it's it's probably gone now, you know, and I know now Iran's gonna probably be gone too. It's you know, and I've got a lot of Iranian friends in America, you know, which I've got I've learnt uh I've met. Lebanon, I miss Lebanon, you know, like these places must have been absolutely gorgeous in their time. And um I I saw that in is Syria, but I wish I saw more of that when I was over there. Jason, when you the food there is great too. Yeah, and I can talk about more about the food. Keep going on. It's it's it's kind of the root vegetables, you know, it's it's what you can do, and and we've done that in the Philippines too. We have lots of islands, and the produce is very hard and it's Expensive because you know it costs m money on ferries and stuff. So if the island hasn't got the um the the tropical climate, which it not many of them do, you are stuck with root vegetables, whether it be eggplants, whether it be carrots and um and beans and stuff. So uh the mother of my child who's a chef, she made uh the menu at our resort more that mezi plate style stuff, that that that Middle Eastern kind of food. And I love it too. Uh the like the paparica, the chickpeas, these are things we can get. You know, it's eat that that's fine, that's canned. But you know, the spices, like, you know, we we'd have to steal our spices and stuff. But with the root vegetables in in Middle East, we kind of mimic that in the Philippines in the islands that we're on.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Now, this brings us to your third food memory. Another can't go by memory um is that you can't go by uh a Spanish bar in Spain.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

No, or tapos. Not just in Spain, I mean I was just in New York last month and I had an opportunity to go out with a few people, but I just there was a Spanish bar up the road, and and I just went there three nights in a row. What is what is it about this food? My daughter was born in Spain. Um goes back to Suskia, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. I look at the memories there. We we lived up in the mountains, you know, we had rabbits and a few little chickens and stuff, and we we had an opportunity to stay in that life or move to the Philippines and and build our dream that we we set out to do. Uh Spain, I've got some great friends back there, really close friends, and um we had I've got some good memories there. And Yeah, I've had some great times in Spain. What what what is it about tappas food that kind of That's after work, working on boats, we'd be straight to the tappas bar, you know? We're having a nice beer, you know, even for lunch, you know, like their their way of living is just it appeals to me. You know, it's it's it's it's sociable, you know, it's conversational. It's you know, it's that's the whole thing about a tappers. You know, you're walking in there and you're going to be shoulder to shoulder with strangers. So you've got to get to know people, you know. So I would imagine you'd be going for the octopus. Always go for the octopus, but yeah, but croquettes and you know the peppers, uh look at anything, you know, it's like but the tappers themselves as well, you know. Um, you know, the anchovies.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Is it that thing of having lots to choose from and just grazing as opposed to sitting down and committing to one?

SPEAKER_03 46:30

Yeah, so I love the pinchos, you know. I love Machego cheese and stuff like that. I I I just love the I I love food being part of it, especially when I go I love going to dinner and w you know and a conversations uh around the food and whilst it's all coming.

SPEAKER_04 46:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

But there's nothing better than small tappers, pinchos coming out. And and I find that I find that I do that at with a menu as well. Like if I open up a menu, I may not go a main. You know, uh as you you know, you a lot of starters are gonna be pushed into mains, you know, or mains are gonna be you know pushed back out. So I'll actually probably do eight starters instead of a main. Are you the guy that orders for everyone on the table? I do, I do, yeah. Look, there's a time and a place. There's times when one you know it you can see it's uh it's chivalry, you know, and you want to do it because you want it, you know. Does it fall on you? Uh it usually does when you're the captain because you got the you got the visa card. But yeah, when you're a captain and you take them out, it always usually falls on us. But I'd rather hand that over to other people uh because I'm I'm liberan too. Right and I and I sit on the fence. I I I really sit on the fence. I get food FOMO. Do you get the shits when they order incorrectly? I I I get I can't order first. I'll I've got to give it, I got everyone else's gotta order, yeah, and then I'll make up my decision as it goes around because and I'm also one of those people that I'm happy to share my meal, but when you say, Oh, would you like to taste some of mine? No, I don't. Like, why? What because I've made my decision. It took a lot to get here. Okay, I've made my decision. I'm not gonna end my meal thinking or going home going, I wish I would have done. You know, like I'll be happy with my meal all the way to the end. You can have some of mine, but I'm not gonna share yours. That's when I do plated meals. Right. But when I when it's tapers and we're all having a go, it's great. And I always put some my the favorite bit to the side to finish on.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

What sort of what sort of barman or or tapas barman or pinchos barman would you would have you have made, do you think, if you had that opportunity?

SPEAKER_03 48:40

Yeah. Perfect. I as I say, I was in New York and I went to this Spanish restaurant, just sat there at the bar, just and I went there three nights in a row. And even some friends in New York were just like, why don't you come out? I'm like, no, I'm going to the Spanish restaurant. Weren't you there last night? Yeah, you don't want to see anything else in New York? No. But there is something there that keeps taking you back. Well, it's the it's that's the personas, it's the people, you know, it's like it's the Spanish um, you know, camaraderie. You know, I sat there and I and I chatted with them and they make you feel welcome, you know, and it's a bit different than most American bars, you know, like that so and I actually I had about three, four plates into it, and I was like, that's great, nice bottle of wine. I've got to see more of that menu. I said, I'll come back tomorrow. And I came back and had different dishes, and I came back third night and I had so I actually had some three the third night, they were giving me free dishes, they wanted to share. I was like, this is great.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

Do you reckon in a formal life or a past life you're a Spaniard?

SPEAKER_03 49:41

I I I should I'd love to be. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to be. I'm definitely sailing the seas.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

With um with this memory, like the apple pie memory, you use the can't go past or on the apple pie without a crumble base, and you can't, and you also said about this one, you can't not sit in a Spanish bar for hours. Is there a kind of a dead poet society that lives inside you somewhere? You know, seize the day.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

Carpiem Carpium, Carpiem, seize the days. I like it. Look, I think foods like music, you know, we're like when we but my palette is like my Spotify playlist as well. Right, you know, I I will sit there and you know, I'll have Metallica, I'll have you know Midnight Oil, I'll have yeah, Sabrina Carpenter now because I've got I've got my daughter and I've got uh Taylor Swift, you know, like my Spotify's been taken over by my daughter. But my genre genre for my Spotify is is everywhere from Minimal Techno to do to you know to some John Denver. Like it's there. My food's like that as well. But what I'm saying is, as I'm sure you agree, food is is like music, it's like a memory. You know, when you that's what I was chasing in New York was that Spanish memory. I I wanted to my time before, you know, just at the cusp of before I had my daughter, you know, when the years I had cruising around Spain with my friends, driving a boat, big boat, not knowing what I was doing, the fun we had, you know, I was eating again 20, 30 years later, those memories through that tappers restaurant in New York. And is that how you are with life as well? Definitely. I'm yeah, I look I'll I'll there'll be a tear at a rom com, you know, like I'm there's a there is a very sensitive emotional part of me. I'm I'm um I'm I'm happy to say that for sure. I don't care. Like, you know, I've got feminine qualities and masculine qualities, I understand it perfectly. And um, you know, my feminine qualities are my emotions and my you know, the mother nature and me going with the flow, you know, and then I've got my masculine qualities where I have to be a captain and staunch and strong and supportive and stable. So I I you know I I'm happy where I'm at emotionally. And so where does all that come from? Mum, Mum, Dad, Dad, they're sensitive souls as well, you know, and you know, and um yeah, mum's always been the spiritualistical side of things or always wanted to be, you know, and um and dad's always been uh the pleaser, you know. Dad's always the one putting away everyone's wheelie bin every Thursday night and in the in the neighborhood. He he's a journalist, you know, he he's got to know everyone in the in the neighborhood's business, you know, he's got it all, and he's such a lovely person, and mum is such a sweet person too. So you said earlier that your father is is suffering from Alzheimer's.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

Yeah. No, this is uh a really big killer in Australia at the moment. Yes, yeah. How do you feel about that and as it slowly wears on for him?

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Um the got I feel appreciation for my siblings. That's I know this is I'm seeing how much Alzheimer's is affecting a lot of people now that I've got I'm understanding it a more now that dad's got it and reading a lot about it and trying to prevent myself the best I can and my diet obviously and and and exercising a lot more. But I'm seeing how much it affects my mum and my my siblings as well. Like I I'm I'm over I'm overseas, so I kind of am escaped from it of the responsibilities to some degree. Like I'm coming back more and more now and bringing my daughter as much as I can. That's why I'm here now. But the effects that Alzheimer's and dementia have on the actual family around it, it's it's a lot, you know. It's like mum's going through her stuff too, but wait up, like, what about me? Like, what's this is not just about dad? Like, I'm that's a my mum's got got to put a hand up and get some attention too. So my sisters are my sisters have been there the last six um well last year a hundred percent. So I could only imagine what it's like with families that don't have that support. Jason, do you have any advice for people on the journey of Alzheimer's?

SPEAKER_02 53:59

Or any words of support?

SPEAKER_03 54:01

Um I I look I'm I've been doing a lot with melanoma and I think this next year or two I want to start doing a lot with foundations with Alzheimer's because the amount of support that not just the person needs but the family need is huge. And um I look I dad seems alright now, I'll go and see him, I'll be seeing him in 48 hours, and but when you're around him you you actually notice a lot, you know, but on the phone you don't. And uh it's a hard it's a hard thing for the for for the spouses, you know, and and the anger that the people that are suffering get, the frustration, you know, then they don't even know why they're frustrated, they don't even know why you know they're picking up their keys for the 50th time in the last two hours, you know. It's like I and then when you're watching it, you just can't be frustrated. You you have to just go with it. It and it's like you know, working on the boat, you know, it's like when all the crap's going on and you see all the crew carrying on, you just like have to take a big sigh and shake your head. It's like that with watching my father with Alzheimer's, you're like you wanna you want to step in, you want to do something, but you just gotta let it go. Does he talk to you about it? No, not really. I've uh we've just started breaching the conversation and opening it up. Um he he he I mentioned him in a podcast about uh three or four months ago, and mum and dad did listen to that podcast, so they're well aware I'm speaking about it, which is good. And I've I've thought about ideas about probably documenting it a little bit to try and understand it more from our point. Um, but I that's not that's a no-go. So um I'm starting to do a lot more work talking to mum about her past, yeah, and and I want to do that with dad as well. I want to start I've set the camera up a couple of times and had some long conversations because I want to when this moves on, I want to look back at these memories. So do you have your own plan of how you will manage it as it moves on? Yeah, uh manage my father. Manage yourself yourself? Um yeah, look, I've been doing a lot of study and I'm not gonna give any medical medicine advice, but um yeah, the the the aspects that are is definitely health, you know, and sugar intake, um exercise. And um that's what I've been doing too. A lot of um I've actually been speaking to a few neuro neurologists in and in Bali and and elsewhere to try and find the miracle the miracle drug for it. To me, it's just um the good flabonoids, you know, good coloured foods, you know, your eggplants, you know, your beetroots and stuff like that. Well that Spanish stuff. Well that Spanish stuff. Good oil. And good red wine, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

And good that's another colour. You've chosen um as your social cause, you've actually supported a number over the years, but one of the foundations that you've supported is class Room of Hope. Um it's a foundation that builds school schools from recycled materials in developing countries. What work did you do with this organization?

SPEAKER_03 57:05

Growing up in the Philippines, building place there, we had a lot a lot of plastic. Um we I we used to just mix it in with our concrete, with our structures, but that can't go on forever. And the one thing they do do on the weekends in Asia is go to church or pray and then they burn their plastic. That's the two things you're guaranteed they're gonna do on a weekend. Um, in San Diego, San Diego in America, I found a company that made blocks out of plastic waste. That led me to a team in Bali called Classroom of Hope, who are two people. And now, this is you know, it's it's a pretty good, very good foundation, probably the only one that I actually know that does a full circle. It's about education, that's what it's about. But in but in 2008, 400 schools got knocked down through earthquakes. They tried to rebuild the schools, they realized the kids didn't want to come back to schools because of the you know the tremors and stuff, and it could they're constant every day. So they raised enough money to build a factory and make the classrooms fully out of recycled plastic waste, like Lego blocks. So I reached out to them and they said, Well, yeah, can you help with your platform? I said, I don't know. They said, We'll give you a school and see if you can raise the money for to rebuild that school. I thought it would take 12 months and four months we raised the money and I re rebuilt the school. We took out six tons of plastic waste to actually rebuild that school. My daughter cut the ribbon with me, and now I'm doing other things with my social media along those lines. You also have started an initiative called Um Current of Change. What's this about? I would I'm trying to find purpose outside the show, and the one thing that sits with me is the education, is the sustainability, the conservation. So I just did two series. I've done one with Coral Restoration and the other one I just did with uh two gentlemen that have just built a factory in Lombok, Indonesia, that are turning plastic waste into school furniture. So I want to current change is about me going to locations, talk about the locations, meet these people that are actually doing great things for the conservation, the people that need donations or a pat on the back or just need some recognition. These non-profit organizations that are working hard for the environment. It's about traveling with a conscience. If you I just want people to realise when they go on a holiday, there's other people that are working tirelessly behind the scenes for the environment. And I think it's someone, it's something that I I think the world could do with. It's some goodness to be to watch, you know, and and watch these people doing a great thing. And hopefully I can turn that into a travel show where I talk about the destination more. I want to talk about the food, I want to go to the local markets, I want to do it raw, I want to I want to trip over myself and get back up. The real deal. Yeah, I want to trip over myself and get back up. I want people to laugh with it. My biggest attribute, I think, is exploring and meeting people, local people, native people, indigenous people, and and understanding them. And if I can learn something along the way and teach that to me and then teach that to the viewers, um, that could be an exciting little exercise. I've done two now and I really like it, and it teaches me something. And I think the best anal analogy analogy I've used, Joe Rogan wouldn't be who he is if he didn't do 700 episodes. So the more I do, the more I'm gonna learn.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:19

In the spirit of Martha Stewart and her kitchen meets life wisdom, we have a tradition here at Three Food Memories where our previous guest passes you their kitchen life guidance. Our previous guest was author and journalist Antoine Isa. He shares with you, and I'm sure this is you too, um, that community is food. The making of it, the sharing of it, the eating of it. Um now, Jason, from all the places that life has taken you, the sea, at home, wherever home is, and as a dad, what's one piece of kitchen life wisdom you'd like to leave for our next guest?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:00

That's from an onion the other day. Hold your fingers in. Um It doesn't have to be about food. No, but the first thing that's coming to me is that um if you eat it all and don't share it, no one's gonna know. So sharing and knowledge exchange. Yes. Like why be that selfish and greedy and eat it all and um and talk about what it was like.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:24

There's enough on your plate to share, Jason?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

Even though you're gonna pull back a bit on the pleasing? Pulling back the pleasing is gonna be back in back into me. Yeah. Yeah. Final question. You know, your life is trajecting up up, up, up, and it's going to great places. But it's your connection with Saskia that has been very apparent right through this whole conversation. It's your centre, it's your ground. There's gonna be a day when you're not in Saskia's life anymore, as I'm not gonna be in my children's life. It's gonna happen for them. What do you want Saskia to take from your relationship with her or with her into the world?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:06

Communication. I think that's what's taught me over whether it be employment, uh, relationships broken up, um speak your truth and speak it out and get it out. Um I think Saskia's learning that too. You know, if you've got something to say, don't be scared to say it. And um holding on to it is only to is damaging only to yourself and to the others. So don't have to be rude. But you can have boundaries or you can actually just express to people how how you feel about something. How long is that as a liberal and how long has that taken you to learn? I'm 54 this year, and it's taken me probably since I started thinking. Probably 52 years. 52 years. Yeah, look, I'm a big fan now of honesty, communication, and being up front.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:54

Captain Jason Chambers, thank you, and I look forward to more chats with Sophia Vegaras like you on Three Food Memories.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:01

Thank you for joining us. That was awesome, thank you. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:08

That's it for this episode of Three Food Memories. Be sure to spread the plated love and check out our hundred-plus back episodes. You can catch them on YouTube as well. Just search for Three Food Memories. For all things TFM, head to the socials at Three Food Memories and at Savasavas. For more info, send us a message, head to threefoodmemories.com. Three Food Memories is produced and edited by Lauren McQuerta with original music by Russell Torrance. Nastika La Philly, and bye for now.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:38

Thank you for listening to Papa's podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe and tell your friends. Bye. Bye.