Peter Jones
Peter Jones is an entrepreneur, seasoned adventure motorcyclist and was the Owner & Director of Café Moto Australia.
Peter is passionate about developing an inclusive community in the custom and classic motoring industry through creativity and innovation. He was the General Manager of Eureka Tower and was the Owner and Director of Café Moto Australia.
Our conversation began with Peter sharing his story, his military career and how he started his first business, the Café Moto Australia which used to be the best café in town. He also talked about the regimen network that helped him when he was struggling, explained how important mental health is, and a lot more. Thank you Peter for sharing your experience and knowledge with all of us!
Full Transcript
Nick Abregu: Hey Google. Who can I call at any time to get me out of some stitch? Who’s that? Dependable paid.
Peter Jones: Okay. I thought you were actually calling Google. I was waiting for Google to answer to answer this.
Nick Abregu: I’ve had to put her on silent mode, on private mode. No, in the airplane mode because she talks to me. She listens to me all the time, kind of. Dude, thanks for coming on the show.
Peter Jones: Thank you very much and thanks for having me in.
Nick Abregu: I’ll just get you to get close to the mic so we can, so that everyone can hear. Just pull it. There you go.
Peter Jones: How’s that sound?
Nick Abregu: That sounds perfect. Can you hear better in your…
Peter Jones: Yeah, yeah. Much better.
Nick Abregu: Awesome.
Peter Jones: Yeah much better.
Nick Abregu: It’s a stinker of a hot day today.
Peter Jones: Ow, it’s beautiful. I was just saying early on if got a knee-deep in bathroom renovations at the moment and you forget to drink water and you only realized how dehydrated you are is when you start to stand up and start wobbling around.
Nick Abregu: Like you’re drunk.
Peter Jones: Yeah. I’ve been here, I’ve been in Australia 20 years and I still haven’t got used to the fact I’ve got to drink lots of water.
Nick Abregu: I know.
Peter Jones: I know. Yeah.
Nick Abregu: I know. I’ve been waking up and I forget to drink, I wake up so thirsty and I forget that I have to drink water.
Peter Jones: That’s so important. It really is.
Nick Abregu: And we’ve got stairs now so, like walking down the stuff like so stiff because my joints are not lubricated.
Peter Jones: I had my 51st birthday 2 days ago. I was not feeling like 51 years.
Nick Abregu: Happy birthday.
Peter Jones: Thank you.
Nick Abregu: Fifty… Did you just say fifty?
Peter Jones: Fifty-one.
Nick Abregu: Fifty-one.
Peter Jones: I think fifty-one? Yes, fifty-one.
Nick Abregu: Man, you don’t look like a day over 20.
Peter Jones: Yeah, I know. I’m a pretty good looking champ.
Nick Abregu: So, for those who don’t know, let’s tell the people listening a little bit about your background. What are you known for?
Peter Jones: I don’t know what I’m known for, I’ve got a lot of different phases, I suppose, in my life. And I was, I joined the British Army when I was 16 years old. So, at first, 15 years, I was in the British Army, which I thought was a career for life but then, bumped into an Aussie, Sheila in London. She was doing the Aussie barmaid thing and one thing led to another and that thing led to a child.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: And then ended up prematurely getting dragged, kicking and screaming out of the regiment and settling in Australia way back in 2000.
Nick Abregu: How many years were you in the military?
Peter Jones: 15 years.
Nick Abregu: 15 years? Wow.
Peter Jones: I joined when I was 16.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Yeah and I loved every minute of it. Loved absolutely every minute of the … It’s an old cliché but the friends you have in the army are really are friends for life.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: I mean, I still consider myself part of the regiment
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah. I still try and catch up with the boys as often as I can.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: As much as I can being 12 000 miles away.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But I didn’t have some friends over Christmas. Some of those other lads came over and it’s just awesome because you … doesn’t matter how many years passed, it’s like’ some of them I haven’t seen like for 12 years and it’s exactly as you left it.
Nick Abregu: What makes it … What’s the thing about the military that brings you guys so close?
Peter Jones: I think it just cuts to … you cut straight to the *****. You know, I mean, I’ve had friends; I’ve been in Australia 20 years now. Very privileged and lucky to have many good friends around, but you join through a lot of people, as an exile you join through a lot of people very quickly. You quickly realize how good people from bad people basically. With a civilian friend, you don’t really know, but most normal people, most civilians, it’s very difficult to get to that stage.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Because you don’t know people until they’re put under pressure.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, that’s true.
Peter Jones: You doesn’t know people until you’re in trouble. And that’s when you know. Within the military, that’s sorted very quickly, you know. Generally speaking, through training, you’re in the training process, you get rid of the draws. So, what’s left is, you know, it sounds really cocky but it’s the cream, you know, the cream rises and …
Nick Abregu: Absolutely.
Peter Jones: You know, you’re in an echo chamber. You’re surrounded by people, like-minded people. And then when you’re put under pressure, the weak ones drop off and good people stay.
Nick Abregu: You mean they’re long enough …
Peter Jones: Absolutely.
Nick Abregu: You’re left with the creme de la creme.
Peter Jones: Yeah. So you know, and you know them inside and out. You live with them 24 hours a day, especially when you go on operations. You’re away in Northern Islands for six months, or you’re away, you know, in the Middle East, and month after month after month, you’re living with them, sleeping right next to them. There’s nothing that you don’t know about them.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You might, absolutely nothing. And it’s, yes, they’re the true friendships you get and I know that, you know, there’s a whole bunch of people I can call tomorrow and if I was in stuff, you know that they’d be there.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, that’s amazing.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: That’s a very good point. You don’t really know someone until they’re put under pressure
Peter Jones: You know, I’ve recently found, I’ve seen that a couple of times, but they know more so than the recent business I had, Café Moto, which when I’m there in August that was, you know…
Nick Abregu: By the way, Café Moto, best coffees in town.
Peter Jones: Oh, thank you very much. Used to be the best coffees in town sadly no more.
Nick Abregu: And the bites in there were amazing.
Peter Jones: I know. Yeah. When we had that, I always had that dream of, you know, going off and doing something myself, start setting that own business up, naively you’re supposed looking back at it now, you know.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: There’s never been a businessman, you know. I’ve always been successful on what I do but never been a businessman.
Nick Abregu: So Café Moto was the first business?
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: You jumped into the deepest **** end?
Peter Jones: And the worst possible industry to get into in Melbourne.
Nick Abregu: Yeah
Peter Jones: It’s a **** industry. It really is. It’s a terrible, terrible industry, and you quickly have to make a choice whether you want to be a crook, or you want to do the right thing.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah. And you know, I’m not judging any of the café that’s successful but to be a successful café in Melbourne,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You have to be prepared to do.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: It’s under-payed staff, not pay taxes, not pay permits. It’s impossible to run a café in Melbourne and doing the right thing. So old muggings here and I’m trying to do the right thing.
Nick Abregu: I remember, you supported the wages…
Peter Jones: That’s right.
Nick Abregu: Yeah. You did everything.
Peter Jones: We had a campaign. We started a campaign to pay award wages and do the right thing. There was no stomach for it, you know, because you know the general population to say the right things and you know, they nod their heads in heated agreements saying, of course we should pay stuff correctly. They don’t want to pay 7 dollars for a latte.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: That’s the black and white of it, you know. It’s just cut through all the ****, cut through all the rhetoric, and the only way that cafes can pay their staff properly expect for the big chain like McDonald’s or, by the way, you pay a different award rate than any of the normal value half a year
Nick Abregu: Yeah. What?
Peter Jones: They pay their staff less than…
Nick Abregu: They call it…
Peter Jones: They have special award. They have their own. KFC, McDonald’s, all that shaped food, they have their own special award.
Nick Abregu: That’s ****.
Peter Jones: Yeah, it’s ****, you know. Then you got the mom and dads, who set off on their little dream. Want to start a café naively quite often, and then you quickly realized. And we ran for five years and I’m very proud of what we did. It was amazing.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It was an amazing café. For those who don’t know, it was a motorcycle café and we had the workshop at the back, a motorcycle workshop at the back. We did road where these repairs and maintenance servicing and at the front, we had a really cool café. It was amazing, you know. We built it from scratch, built everything ourselves. It was really successful. We were churning over a million dollars a year.
Nick Abregu: Wow!
Peter Jones: But we didn’t see a brass farthing out. If we don’t see one dollar out of that…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, sixty percent of the money was going to wages.
Nick Abregu: And you put your hands on.
Peter Jones: You do. You know, you do. And the whole family’s involved and it’s a learning curve, you know, I mean, we look at it now and I’m glad I did it. I’m glad I did it and I’m glad I went through that.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But it was very naïve, you know. You jump into it and I think it comes from my military background where you have belief in the system. You believe that when you go into something that the system is there.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But not so much to look after you, but there will be guidelines, you know, what they say is what they’re gonna do.
Nick Abregu: And it’s just doesn’t work that way.
Peter Jones: Yeah. The government knows it, the councils know it, everybody knows it. This is what, you know, this elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about including customs, you know. We have these campaigns where we put up the surcharge on the weekends to cover weekend wages and the backlash was just phenomenal.
Nick Abregu: I know.
Peter Jones: We had this huge public campaign on three you might have subsea, you’ll get eight thousand followers on Facebook and we had this great campaign and all the public would jump, of course, yeah absolutely. This is fantastic, yeah. Let’s do it. But then, when it comes to handing over the cash…
Nick Abregu: Yah.
Peter Jones: You didn’t want to do. So, you know.
Nick Abregu: Everyone’s very quick to voice their opinion but when it comes to action…
Peter Jones: That’s exactly right, you know. You’d see this in your line of work and the charity stuff that you do, you know. It’s one thing to nod your head furiously and say of course something should be done about this. But then when you grab tug their arms and say, okay let’s do something about it.
Nick Abregu: Yeah. No one wants to do anything.
Peter Jones: Yeah exactly. Yeah.
Nick Abregu: And that’s sad.
Peter Jones: It is sad. Because you know, we are proud…
Nick Abregu: But again, for the people that do and like, well done to them.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Like the people who do support that.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Amazing work.
Peter Jones: Absolutely. And we wouldn’t change a thing, you know. We went under, we went under, you know. We struggled along for five years. The final nail in the coffin was the…
Nick Abregu: The road work.
Peter Jones: Yeah, the level crossing.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Which, you know, we … and that again was a real insight into what a lying bunch of bastards that government is, and politicians are. We all know it but, again something deep down, they’re thinking, oh, you know, they must be wanted to do the right thing, you know, they must want to help you. No. they don’t. They couldn’t give through facts. They are really to not giving ****.
Nick Abregu: So, to those who are watching or listening that you were on the Nepal.
Peter Jones: Yeah. So, we were in Carrot Beach. We were going back right at the start. We were looking for a really cool, old, retro, servo type building where we could set up. There’s a place called Ace café in London, which is the mother of all motorbike cafes that they started it all back in the 1950s with the café racer movement and it’s a really cool, funky café in London and that’s what we model ourselves from with their blessing, and you know, we know the chats from there, they’re awesome. So, we found this old server in Carrot and it was a rundown piece of ****. The roof is falling in and we got a good deal on it. We spend three months literally rebuilding it. I, physically, rebuilt the roof, you know, got it all back in running, and then we built all the furniture there and you know, it’s put a lot of work into getting it all up and running.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So that’s right on Nepeon highway.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Good spot. Great little spot. We did struggle with staff because people now wanted to work in Mornington or Portsea or the city, so you have a little bit of a no-man’s land in terms of staff. But you know, we did okay. But, yeah, so we quickly realized that we were chocked, absolutely chock-a-block, you know. On when we first opened, lines at the door, every weekend with turning tables over and you don’t see a brass farthing of it. You don’t see a one dollar of it.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Because the more successfully we became, the more staff we had to put up, you know. You can’t deliver quality service without good quality staff.
Nick Abregu: That’s right. You had good staff.
Peter Jones: We had amazing… and we still keep in touch with, you know. We used to employ lot of scallywags so people that were you know, down in the dumps. We had a core group of good staffs but we had an agreement with an organization in Frankston where we’d get a lot of people struggling to find work there.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, on drugs, you know. In and out of prison. Yeah, we had them all down there and in and out of place and you know, and we had a great success rate in looking after people and getting back on their feet.
Nick Abregu: It seems like you guys tried to do a lot of good but the reward wasn’t as high as you wanted, to be able to support that.
Peter Jones: Yeah, exactly.
Nick Abregu: Right?
Peter Jones: Yeah, and I think you know, given the right money on the right circumstances you know, we had a great formula, we had a fantastic formula there.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But just ran out of cash.
Nick Abregu: And did you ever think about seeking out for investments in company?
Peter Jones: You know, it’s when you’re in the melee of running the business, you’re struggling to survive day by day and you know, you sit back and you know, we did look at that, we had a look at that, but the amount of work and effort that goes into setting something up, doing proposals and you know, we were literally just fighting day by day.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: To stay afloat.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: To put that up. And we had, you know…
Nick Abregu: But even in a position where you are thriving, it still takes a lot of time.
Peter Jones: Absolutely.
Nick Abregu: It’s like you’ll be surviving or thriving. And even if you’re thriving, you still need to keep that boat afloat.
Peter Jones: 100%. Yeah.
Nick Abregu: There’s just no time in the day.
Peter Jones: Nothing. Nothing at all. And you’re not having the rewards of money in the bank neither you know. I was the general manager at Eureka Tower for ten years, earning a lot of money. Good money in a corporate environment and jumped in to Café Moto, so I’ve gone from earning three figures to nothing. I’m relying on my missus who, thankfully, she had a half-decent job. So, we’re struggling at home as well, so you’ve gone from a certain lifestyle living in the city, living in an apartment in South Bank you know. Good money, not wanting for anything, that to all of a sudden you know, watching what you buy and…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: When you’re shopping, you had to be you know, and it’s been a lot. I grew up in a **** environment when I was a young kid and I remember that poverty you know, and I never would have thought to get back to, it isn’t poverty, not even close to, but…
Nick Abregu: But it’d be a big change…
Peter Jones: Yeah. A big change, penny-pinching you know, and really struggling and watching you know, and moaning when you got a bloody Reggio billion, and I realize I’m very privileged compared to a lot of people out there living in the streets.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, I’m not trying to claim I’m destitute but it’s, the rewards worth it, so that you’re working seven days a week and you put massive hours in having no downtime, no quality family time, no holidays for nothing you know. You’re not earning any money out of it so it’s you know, it’s a trudge you know, it’s a real heartache to put that much effort.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, absolutely.
Peter Jones: And not get the rewards you know.
Nick Abregu: The fact that you dived into it, I think that’s remarkable, courageous.
Peter Jones: We don’t regret like I said, we don’t regret one minute of it. It’s what a massive learning curve, it’s the… I wish I’d have put some more research into it at the start, but I’m like that you know, I just got excited and I dive into things and you know, because I’m not cocky but overconfident…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: In my abilities and this was a real humbler you know, it’s a real…
Nick Abregu: Well just an expensive learning … listen.
Peter Jones: Yeah, it is.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It is, but you know, we came out okay you know. We went into liquidation in August, not even talking about that you know. It could be embarrassing for some people like as a failure or …
Nick Abregu: It’s not. It’s never a failure. There’s no such thing as failure.
Peter Jones: No.
Nick Abregu: Unless you don’t learn anything then you’re an idiot.
Peter Jones: Yeah, exactly. But going back to what we were saying before though about your friends and who would know and who your friends are.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: As a café owner especially a cool café which you know, when it went under, it hit the media you know, zone ABC , was on Channel ten, the project, it was called iconic, it was called the iconic Café Moto that I’m proud of.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, absolutely.
Peter Jones: And when it went under, so when we were in business, when we were operating, you get all these hangers off. Nobody wants to, it’s a Melbourne thing that everybody wants to know a cool café owner you know. All these people, all wanted to know you.
Nick Abregu: Okay.
Peter Jones: And they went, as soon as it went under, gone.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah. The big chunk of people just puffs.
Nick Abregu: Wow!
Peter Jones: Yeah, like a dust outline where they used to be.
Nick Abregu: That’s an interesting dynamic.
Peter Jones: Yah, because you’re no longer any use you know. You’re no longer cool. You’re no longer you know, and this is, this kind connects to some of the work that you do, with you, with the homelessness and a lot of those people there. How their situation changes very, very quickly and how they can’t cope sometime you know.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Divorce, death in the family, or they you know, they become bankrupt or lose the business.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: We struggled you know, the last we went under in August and we’ve had a **** time over the last couple of months you know. But I’ve got strong family, lovely wife, great mates you know, but a real core of great mates, and we had that framework, we had that foundation to survive that and we were never in any danger of being destitute. We just struggled. We just struggled. But there was poor bastards, who don’t have that framework, who don’t have that support network who have one you know, it just takes one or two…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Not … how can I say it. **** it you know, I just can’t deal with this ****
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And they end up you know.
Nick Abregu: It’s from people I’ve spoken to on the streets, it puts the fear in me that we are just so close like it doesn’t matter how rich you are, it doesn’t matter how much money you’ve made, you’re so close to being under that line, under that poverty line.
Peter Jones: Money means nothing. People really doesn’t you know…
Nick Abregu: I mean if this is not working right, like you’re so close, at any moment.
Peter Jones: Yeah, and again you know, going back to the whole military thing you know, that I’m so blessed with quality friendship.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But some people, they might be friends with somebody for years and then something bad happens you know, they whatever, however their life starts to unravel and all the sudden, that one person they thought they could rely on just say, ****this, I’m out of here.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, you’re a loser and they’re gone.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, and sometimes that happens to be your partner.
Peter Jones: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you’d be married and also you know, something happens…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And you know, you’re gone. The missus leaves you or the husband leaves you and that’s it you know. It happens to quickly.
Nick Abregu: I remember talking to one guy, so for those who don’t know, we have a charity called The Winter Care Package where we help, we distribute blankets, beanies, gloves and all these things to the homeless people and we only do it during winter and I remember talking, every year I speak to someone that sticks in my mind for a long time and this one year, there was this guy, he was just telling me, from one day to the next, his wife left him. Look, I’m sure that things, you know, it’s not from one day to the next in reality but it seemed like that.
Peter Jones: It can seem like that of course.
Nick Abregu: Yeah. And she left him, she took the kids, she worked up the bank account, he spiraled into depression, lost his job, and then ended up sleeping like on the streets in Perth, I remember, but there was just not enough people there that could help him so he came to Melbourne to find a job and just couldn’t do anything here so for the last ten years or so, it just, the depression and it’s just so hard to get out of that depression and I understand. It’s hard. Once you’re in that realm, you start to believe it, you start to believe that you’re not worth anything so you just, you stay comfortable in the depression.
Peter Jones: Yeah, your confidence just gets knocked you know, and I’ve known many people like this, family members as well, and they build a wall around themselves you know, and they’re safe behind the wall whether it’s, you know, sleeping rough or being on their own, substance abuse, alcohol you know, and it’s their safe little bubble you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It’s very difficult to smash out of that and it just gets worse and worse and to the point where they don’t know what was normally you know, what we used to be like.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: We had an old mate of mine and he was found on the streets of Newcastle in U.K. He was a member of the regiment you know, very brave man. He’d been in just about every conflict. The British Army had been involved with since the early 70s. So many tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Gulf, none of that affected it you know, a lot of people affected by conflict, PTSD, etc. You know, that’s the general serious issue, but the vast majority professional soldiers don’t! You know, this is a misconception that every single soldier in this battle is gonna get PTSD.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It’s not the case you know. It’s generally triggered by something else or one particular drama that happened. Anyway, this chap gone through all his military career, he was very courageous soldier, had a wife and a child and he came back from Bosnia and not an inkling that was a problem in the family, in their marriage, came back to an empty house, she cleaned them out you know. Not only cleaned them out but just you know, was nasty enough to leave a can of lager and a cigar on the coffee table. That’s all she left him you know, and cleaned everything out and he just went to **** you know, he just fell apart and he ended up signing off from them, from the army and you know, lost touch with everybody and then, he was found years later, living rough.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: Luckily, the regiment, as well as the Britain, in Britain, they have a really good support network for old soldiers. They really look after they have to save, but even aside from the official organizations, the regiment has its own little fund as well.
Nick Abregu: Okay.
Peter Jones: So, we all got together and basically back on his feet.
Nick Abregu: Oh, wow! So your group of mates from the regiment, you guys put together…
Peter Jones: Well, yeah.
Nick Abregu: Wow!
Peter Jones: Association, and we still, every year, they have a reunion,
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: Regimental reunion, hundreds of the guys you know, catch up. It was harder for me being in Australia.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But yeah, look it’s a very, very strong network you know, if I was in the **** over here I know, I could reach out to them and they would help me you know,
Nick Abregu: That’s a, made sure you are…
Peter Jones: That’s why I’m lucky. I’m very lucky that I have these you know, what happens to me pales into insignificance compared to a lot of poor buggers out there who just don’t have that.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, I’m very blessed.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: Yeah, but there’s still a lot of old soldiers excelled just on the streets you know, not because it’s lack of support, because they’re just so messed up inside their own heads you know, and it’s sad to see you know.
Nick Abregu: Is it because of some of the things you’ve seen or…
Peter Jones: Yeah, I think it’s a combination of their own personal lives you know, wives leaving them or whatever has happened you know. There’s many different multi layers of problems with mental health you know, it’s not just down to one thing you know, I mean I had a childhood you know, you look back at a point where you could have gone either way and I was bloody lucky I joined the army you know, and it’s the classic story of a scallywag you know, wandering aimlessly and also just get picked up, boom. So in the old days, back in the 80s, the British army established this thing called Jedi leaders regiment which used to take youngsters basically failed school, kids you know, I left school when I was 14 and I was living on my own from 14 onwards. So, I’m going through all sorts of nonsense and naughtiness and you know, drinking and then I just happened to walk past the army careers office in Newport in Wales and I was just wandering down, don’t get a packet of bags or something I can’t remember.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And the army careers office was like a spider web to entice fly-in to you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: They had a big bay window and had a massive model of a chieftain tank and as a kid walking past, ****, that’s cool. And I was looking at this tank in the mid, and of course, the spider comes out, the sergeant-major, alright mate, yeah, you like that, do you? Yeah. Come inside a bought some more, so…
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: You know, oh, okay. The next minute I was signing a document you know, and that was entrapment, absolutely entrapment.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But thank **** they did you know. Thank God that they did you know, because I would have ended up, God knows.
Nick Abregu: What do you think?
Peter Jones: Well, my brother ended up in prison, so I probably would have ended up you know, I mean it’s that classic tale you know, you’ve heard a million time form why did you join the army, I’d have been in prison but you know, it’s true, absolutely true.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: And there’s so many of my mates in the regiment that we had the same story.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, it’s just absolute **** you know, and the other thing is that I learn very, very quickly in the army or the old-school army, I’m not so sure what’s it like there, and it’s very politically correct these days.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: In the army I joined, it was sure sharp shock you know, I walked into that regiment thinking I was Rocky Balboa you know, I was this little tough kid you know, hard as nails and fighting in the streets and in reality I was a 60-year-old wet blanket and I had the **** kick down within a week you know, I was like, what the **** is going on here
Nick Abregu: Hamburger.
Peter Jones: Yeah, you get it. But with equal amount of ferocity you get equal amount of love you know, and I was so lucky to have a sergeant-major who was just, to me, he always seemed like he was seven foot five, bit like a brick ****, jour like you know, squared jour and fought in the Falklands and numerous tours in Northern Ireland, hard as **** nails, really hard as nails. I was Otis, literally, pee my pants.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah, if he shouted, I would wet myself, as a sixteen year old and he would boot you all around and physically boot you all around the place.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: He’ll boot you up the ass, smack you around the head you know, and of course you’d be the ****, it’s not so if he just randomly walks into you, smack you around, it’s because you weren’t doing what you’re supposed to. You get the old three warnings. They’re not even three warnings to you know, first of all you pull your side to tell you what you’ve done wrong, and show you how to fix it.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Second time, he’d grab you and say, I told you, let’s do it. Third time, you get bang!
Nick Abregu: Yeah. That’s fair.
Peter Jones: But it was equal amount of love you know, you really were nurtured and like I said, thank God. I thank God I joined the regiment and it’s made me who I am you know. I become motivated,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Passionate about life, and passionate about helping people as well.
Nick Abregu: Yeah. That’s … I don’t, I haven’t been to military at all, but I think it would be completely different now than it would have been back then. So how long ago were you in the military?
Peter Jones: I left in 2004 for 20 years and ten kilograms ago, as well as the downside of all the…
Nick Abregu: Until all the croissants that you have…
Peter Jones: I know, yeah. I think when up to 15 years of running every day and moving around like a soft get.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, when I first got out, far from nutted anymore, but I mean, I’m not a beast but, yeah, it’s 15 years of running around looking like a maniac.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, and it’s hard when you get out and stop doing,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Especially, as you get older as well, it’s a lot harder.
Nick Abregu: Well, I’m 34 you know, I need this thing to have it real.
Peter Jones: Oh, wait until you really gone another 20 years mate, you find…
Nick Abregu: I need all the, like the electrolytes and all.
Peter Jones: Yeah, actually I was about the same, about my needleless shot for the reconstruction and back operation.
Nick Abregu: No, really. What happened to your back?
Peter Jones: I think just those years of carrying heavy weights.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Jumping off and walking down off tanks, and played rugby, I just not respecting my body.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, and I did a big motorcycle ride couple of years ago called Miles for Smiles, so it was a big charity motorcycle run and I did it from a road from a pole back to Australia over three miles.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: But I did it on an old vintage motorbike which had you know, just totally wrecked my back. It was bad before but I came back to my ride and yeah, it’s just really creaking then one day just gone. When I was in the hospital and I had a back operation and I’ve been in and out ever since.
Nick Abregu: What did they operate on?
Peter Jones: My lower lumbar, so they fused my lower lumbar.
Nick Abregu: Why? Was the cartilage or whatever inside of the…
Peter Jones: Yeah, just gone. They took it, gone, and then the bulge disc, and some sort of nonsense going on, so they fused the lower … I mean, once that happens, you’re in and out all the time.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah, especially for, I should be losing a bit away and I need to drop a few kilograms they’ll probably make it, make life a bit easier as well, but you know, you just, that’s what happens when you…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Again, no regrets, had a great active life.
Nick Abregu: That’s the plan, you just get a house with a long driveway…
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: So you have to go get the mail every day.
Peter Jones: Yeah. Actually, no. Just joined, my wife goes to the gym every morning. She dragged me along there.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And we’ve a massive Great Dane so we…
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: …really take it down the beach every morning…
Nick Abregu: Oh, wow!
Peter Jones: About five in the morning, so it’s 70 kilograms.
Nick Abregu: What?
Peter Jones: 70 kilogram.
Nick Abregu: Jeez, head like a horse?
Peter Jones: Yeah, she’s just a dopey bastard you know, she’s just so sweet and you know, quite intimidated by her because she’s so big.
Nick Abregu: I remember the dog park there, all the little dogs, little pug would hide under Great Danes.
Peter Jones: Yeah, that exactly what happens. Well I ain’t got nuts and she just stands there.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It’s oblivious. She doesn’t like other dogs and not in any way that she’s growly, she just doesn’t acknowledge.
Nick Abregu: Don’t want at all.
Peter Jones: She doesn’t acknowledge you know.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: She much rather play with humans so all those dogs are running around in legs and she just, she doesn’t care.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, Great Danes are the most well-natured dogs, however, incompetent.
Peter Jones: Well, that was forced upon me because I said to the family that I don’t want animals while were going through the whole Café Moto thing you know, we were not on a play of course, they ignored me and they said, well we’re going to get a rescue dog. So they sent an SMS one day, at the rescue pound, we’re going to get a rescue dog and they took a photograph of Luna but they did it in such an angle that it didn’t look like a big dog. They did it like a wide lens and I’m like, oh, it’s quite cute.
Nick Abregu: Thank you, medium-sized dog.
Peter Jones: And then they brought it home, literally put me on my ass. They open the door and just came barreling in…
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: …the whole 70 kilos.
Nick Abregu: So you got, Luna is the name?
Peter Jones: Luna, yeah.
Nick Abregu: As a rescue dog?
Peter Jones: Yeah, a Great Dane.
Nick Abregu: Wow!
Peter Jones: My family had… because people buy them as a status symbol because they’re such a big dog.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And they’re loving her. She get put up for adoption.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: Because you know, they’re quite destructive you know, I mean, our house, if you’re precious about your house, don’t get a Great Dane.
Nick Abregu: Because they jump up everywhere, that way?
Peter Jones: They jump, I mean, when we walk, when we come in to the house, she literally jumps as high as the top of the door.
Nick Abregu: Wow!
Peter Jones: And then she spins around and she knocks things, she smashes everything.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: You know, she wrecks and she decides, she doesn’t like a carpet or a rug, she just tear it up.
Nick Abregu: Oh, really?
Peter Jones: Yeah. So the house, you know, if you’re precious about your house, don’t get Great Dane. But they’re just adorable.
Nick Abregu: They are.
Peter Jones: Absolutely adorable.
Nick Abregu: The big dumb gels. Is it gels or whatever? What is it, gels?
Peter Jones: Gels, yeah. They’re just gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous, and then we’re now got another dog who’s my son’s, looking for a house.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So he’s moved in to his mum while he’s looking for a house so, they can’t have the dog there. We got his dog and two cats as well so.
Nick Abregu: Wow. The zoo.
Peter Jones: A zoo painting the house.
Nick Abregu: I want to ask you a little bit about your military. I know people in the military, they both, you’ve always got some good stories, like what’s the most testosterone thing you’ve ever done?
Peter Jones: Oh, Jesus! You know, it’s not even fit for public broadcast. I’m not even joking you know. I often say to my kids and even my civilian friends you know, you can’t even tell people half the stories,
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Because they wouldn’t even believe it, some of the **** that we did back in, especially back in the 80s when you can get away with blue murder.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: People wouldn’t just believe you. I’ve had my old army mate over Christmas,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And we did a road trip up to Canberra, and I had my civilian mate with us as well so I introduced him to them and I was a bit nervous because, just, they’re chalk-and-cheese you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Like, my army mate, his name is Hog.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: That’ll give you a clue, his name is Hog. And just a funniest man alive. Yeah, just a hilarious bloke. And my other civilian mate, he’s a designer. He’s a lighting designer, so they’d met briefly at, when I got married, couple of years ago. They’d met briefly there but this is a road trip so they’re gonna be, you know, so I was a bit nervous but needn’t be, they’re both beautiful people.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, but like what I said, stories were coming out you know, where in a couple of peers,
Nick Abregu: Yeah, ****.
Peter Jones: Now we are just naturally reminiscing and you do, you find yourself both checking yourself going, hang on, we can’t say that.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Can’t tell that story.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Because they’re just, beyond belief, a lot of then you know, and they, and it’s not just stories about going out and getting pissed, it’s still what you did when you’re away on operations and you know, some of those things that happened in the Gulf of Bosnia you know, Northern Ireland,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Just stuff that normal people would never ever get to experience you know and it’s you know, again a great privilege to experience that stuff but, yeah, beyond belief sometimes.
Nick Abregu: Did you see some horrendous **** going on?
Peter Jones: You do! We did, I was only in 15 years but a lot of my mates, they did the full 22 years in fact a lot of them are still there now, so I did the Gulf in Bosnia and Northern Ireland but you know, I’ve got mates in there they’ve done three or four tours of the Gulf, you know, the Second Gulf War back against the Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, three tours of Bosnia,
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: Numerous tours in Northern Ireland, some of that, it’s gonna mess with your mind, not really, I think a lot of them. It comes down to training, I fear for a lot of youngsters coming through these days because there’s a genuine epidemic, I think, of PTSD and I think a lot of it is poor training you know, it’s probably a quite controversial thing to say bit I think a lot of people who’s not prepared of what they see these days and when I went to the Gulf, I wasn’t shocked about what I saw, I was expecting it you know. Because that’s exactly what we are told to expect, so when it happened, then you, it’s raw violence, it’s absolutely raw violence in its most extreme form and it’s horrible you know, any normal same human being wouldn’t sit there and say, yeah that’s fine.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It’s not fine. It’s disgusting, it’s horrible but not unexpected you know.
Nick Abregu: Okay, I understand sir. How do you think they trained you for this like, what do you think is the difference now?
Peter Jones: The difference is that there’s a lot of fear about telling them as well. People can claim now even from going through training, so you can put somebody through training whether it’s paramedic training you know, police training, military training, any of those industries that require, it’s a good chance you’re going to see something horrible that you know, I’ve spoken to a lot of people who have gone through their training, police training and military training and it’s you know, and I’ve got guys still in the regiment who were there when I was there and they said it’s not like the old days you know, the old thing, swindle lances, not like the old days and they genuinely isn’t you know. We, our training for Northern Ireland for instance, was intense you know, to the point where when you actually got to Northern Ireland, it was a breeze you know, there’s all that old adage that you train hard, fight easy.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So when in Northern Ireland training, you had Italian villages and Bracket villages, they are built and they had a thing called a sip cop civilian population where people were put in and they were given identities you know, different regiments were given identities you know, you’re the grocer, you’re the barman , you know, you run this and you run that and you’re a family here you know, they’ve given identities and, for the months and months training just you won’t tour off Northern Ireland intense you know, and then you’ve gone on patrol, a mock patrol and in one day you’d be hit by three snipers and roadside bombs and you know, all in one day in training and you’re reacting, you’re running like a blue ass fly.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So when you get to know the like, there’s no snipers there every single day you know, you might get a little riot now and again a couple of bombs but,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It’s not happening ten times a day so, and it’s the same with the Gulf you know, the training was intense, really, really intense and there were no homes but you know, you were shown a lot of stuff, you’re shown the horrific side of it all. Your first-aid training was real you know, you visit hospitals and you’d see post-mortems and all that kind of stuffs. So it’s geared up to show you the real harsh realities of what it’s gonna be like, what I think, I don’t think that exists anymore you know and I think, I’m an old fan so I’m always gonna **** and moan about political correctness and I’m all gonna **** and moan about what it was like in the old days and it’s luck good these days but there’s also, I think we’re not as protected as we once used to be all prepared. So there’s a lot of you know, there’s all of my generation, it may be bad PTSD but it’s because something in particular has happened, maybe they haven’t behaved in a correct manner,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: When you’re in the middle of it you know, you’ve done something that they’ve regretted later on.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, that’s a very good point, I think.
Peter Jones: Yeah, I think but the gen, like I said, generally speaking, nothing bothered me and I know suddenly of people like that, that they’ve gone through much more than I ever went through you know, and still serving, but still you know, row after row of metals on their chest,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And they’re totally fine but there’s other people and it triggers like that Chaplin, his wife left her you know, he ended on PTSD but that was a trigger from something else, and then he just collapsed into a heap of depression you know. Sometimes I think he gets misdiagnosed as well, PTSD, and there’s a lot of you know, again controversial thing to say but a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, it’s too easy these days with this massive support, thank God it’s there that people don’t know yet. I’ve got PTSD or I’ve got this, or I’ve got that and they jump in on it you know, and it’s, to me, it muddies the water for the people who really have it.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: All these crying asses out there who you know, they’re **** and moaning about all sorts instead of…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, because ultimately, with mental health issues, ultimately, we all want to pull ourselves up, we all want to get to the stage where we make ourselves better, but I think, think sometimes. There’s a lot of victimhood and we wallow sometimes and again I think that muddies the water for the people who really are genuinely sick.
Nick Abregu: So when someone says they have PTSD from the military, do they just bundle them in and put them straight into a program? Instead of filtering or maybe, even other options to say maybe, it’s not piteously, maybe it’s something else. Let’s try this first and then, is it like that?
Peter Jones: I don’t think it is resources first especially in Australia, they don’t have that level of resources. It’s too hard you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And I think it’s easy just to throw them in a bundle immense of PTSD, there you go you know, I’ve known these cases of guys who’ve been not taking it away from the logistics sided of the army or the Air Force or the Navy you know, everybody has a job and it’s very important but sometimes there’ll be a lorry driver, a truck driver who served and he was delivering fuel in the rear echelon and he leaves the military and then he’s claiming for PTSD you know. Yeah, I know there’s people out there like that
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And that to me, is just milking the system and chugging the system up…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: …for the people who were genuinely suffering. It’s quite often the people who are genuinely suffering don’t reach out, they’re the ones who are not reaching out, they’re the quiet ones, they’re the ones that sitting at home you know, sunken, sinking themselves into a bottle of whiskey.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, they’re not the ones reaching out so, probably a controversial thing to say but you know, that’s…
Nick Abregu: I think there’s a little truth to what you said.
Peter Jones: Yeah, and it’s you know, I love the people that we used to help with Café Moto like I said we had all manners of scallywags working for us, I mean we have people thieving offers, dipping in the till, stealing bottles of liquor you know, we knew it’s happening you know, we knew there was a good chance that would happen but we helped them you know, and I had a lot of, my approach was tough love you know, where it’s, you can get to a certain point with somebody, when you look at somebody and goes, yah, I can help this person you know, you’re gonna get slapped, you’re gonna get stolen from, you’re gonna get let down, but you know, what ultimately, I think there’s a flicker of hope there you know, and we’ve had a massive success rate and that’s based on grabbing and pulling them aside and saying, salt your **** self out, you’ve got one chance here, if you don’t **** jump on it, you’re out the door.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, and I really do. I can throw them around and say that, this is it, generally with blokes you know, you see a big tough Maori guy or a big tough back in angry bloke who’s know nothing but violence and you know, growling up. Sometimes they need that little bit of slap.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Again, controversial thing to say, but they’re in a system that molly cottons them you know, and they just constantly hugging them and which is important but sometimes what they need is a **** slap, you say, mate, sort your **** out.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, you’ve been a **** so sort your **** out and I’m gonna help you if you do this, this, and this and sometimes they go, a massive shock on their face and go, alright.
Nick Abregu: Because they’ve never had that…
Peter Jones: They’ve never had it…
Nick Abregu: …been presented.
Peter Jones: A male figure grabbing them and say, you sort your **** out. It’s always been, how I used to date Daniel and how you feeling, you know.
Nick Abregu: That’s annoying.
Peter Jones: It is you know. You can cut straight to the chase and I just drilled straight down into what the problem is. If you’re honest and treating like a, again generally blokes, but treating like a bloke, treating like a man you know.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, and then tell them to act like a man.
Nick Abregu: There’s a lot of that missing in the society.
Peter Jones: Yep.
Nick Abregu: You can’t treat a man the same way you treat a woman and in that regard. We’re just different.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: We’re just different animals.
Peter Jones: And generally speaking, there’s a lot of these support networks. There’s a lot of women, because women are nurturing.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, so a lot of these charities and the support networks, they have a lot of women in. All these angry blokes don’t respect them.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: I couldn’t give to **** you know, they’d sit there go how much am I gonna get of this break-in, am I gonna get of this violence you know, they might be attending corps and all their interests in, it is what they can get out of it.
Nick Abregu: Yeah
Peter Jones: You know, and quite often they’re just in this perpetual loop because they don’t have strong male role model you know, we can talk about females afterwards and talk about kids and all those, but I’m talking about angry young men.
Nick Abregu: Oh yeah. A specific group.
Peter Jones: A specific group of angry young men who are violent and you know, always wanting to kick off and you know, just, they need a strong male role model to grab and pull them on the side and show them how to be a proper man.
Nick Abregu: And most of the time is because they didn’t have that.
Peter Jones: They didn’t have it, they’ve never had. There’s a charity or name it, but there, when I first got involved with them, it seemed like it was a great idea you know, they basically had male mentors and you grab a kid and you mentor him. He contacts you 24 hours a day and it’s brilliant.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And I thought it’s gonna be that great, that’s what we need. The male role models gonna boom, boom into shape, but again it was guidelines, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, you can’t say this, and you can’t say that and you just hamstrung by these guidelines and sometimes you got to step out of the box you know, put the rulebook away, and literally, kick him up the ass.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And say, this is the way mate, this is the way it’s gonna be. You can continue down this road or you can snap out of it right now and come with me this way and I’ve had a lot of success doing that, but you’ve got to be very careful.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, it takes a certain type of person to be able to do that as well. Not everyone can…
Peter Jones: Yeah, there’s a fine line, they say, between bullying and kicking somebody’s ass to make them better.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, and it is. And it takes, it does take. And it’s getting worse; it’s getting harder and harder and harder.
Nick Abregu: Well we have this conversation with a someone that treats and helps people become better from trauma so it essentially helps them get over the trauma,
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Through NLP, and all that kind of stuff and we both agreed that bullying, because of its low existence now, it’s changing the way people grow up, like people becoming more inclined to feel sorry for themselves,
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Because they didn’t feel the effects of bullying but, I’m not saying bullying to the extent where you want to kill yourself,
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Because that’s horrendous like both people should be you know,
Peter Jones: Of course.
Nick Abregu: But I think, bullying helps you grow as a human being.
Peter Jones: Yeah, I think so too and I think, it’s all sorts of different things, isn’t it. It’s the same as driving, you know, there’s so many **** drivers now and when I grew up, it’s called hooning now, isn’t it, but when I first got my license, I found a little car park somewhere or I would, in my case in Germany, I was based in Germany, and the first car I got, the first thing I did was take it down into the woods and we’re rallying through the woods,
Nick Abregu: Yeah
Peter Jones: Talking about handbrake turns, but you know what? You learned to drive.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, you learn skills now,
Nick Abregu: Defensive driving.
Peter Jones: Defensive driving?
Nick Abregu: Which people don’t learn that.
Peter Jones: Now, you tell that you can’t tell that story to a lot of people.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, because they instantly offended, instantly…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, straight on to, oh that’s disgusting. You know, when I first came to, at first…
Nick Abregu: Just to know, there’s nothing like doing a good handbrake you wanna…
Peter Jones: Brilliant, you know. Absolutely.
Nick Abregu: Drift the car.
Peter Jones: Yeah, you learn to drift in a way that’s not gonna hurt anybody else.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: That’s the key thing.
Nick Abregu: Ah, yes.
Peter Jones: You shouldn’t be getting told a lot for doing a handbrake turns,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You shouldn’t be doing, getting told of if you’re doing it in a string.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: If you got kids in it you know, that’s the real danger. I remember when I first got to Australia, I lived in, based in Germany for years and years and you know, with the other bands and I stuck the kids in the back of the 7xj6, the kids in child seats in the back and I’d be driving back to Wales at 160 k’s an hour and that’s actually slow you know, that’s just cruising back to Wales you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And so I came to Australia, my first introduction to have **** there, all of the **** roads. The first thing I bought a Daytona 955 motorbike, excuse me, and literally within weeks of arriving, I bought a brand new bike and then ran about midnight, I took it off on the east, it must be east if it wasn’t or whatever it was, pre East in the freeway, it was the you know, and I took it on there. There’s no traffic around and I did a couple of laps, up and down, make sure there’s no cops and I just, I probably gonna get in trouble and so I float to **** just to see what it can do.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: I got it to 265 k’s an hour.
Nick Abregu: Oh, wow!
Peter Jones: You know, no dramas, no, you know, there was nobody around, it was fine and it was on a freeway, fine you know, so I thought, I got some work the next day and I’m in the group office there one of the guys said, how’s the new bike? I said, yeah, I’ve got it, honestly, I’ve got it up to 265 last night, and they all looked at me like I stamped on a puppy’s head.
Nick Abregu: Oh my… Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, like they said, oh my God!
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And that was my introduction, so. **** road rules over here. I’ve accumulated lots of points in the 20 years and…
Nick Abregu: That’s why I have to get rid of my bike.
Peter Jones: Yeah, it is so easy to get your points taken off you.
Nick Abregu: Still a little blip of the throttle and you’re at a hundred and fifty k’s an hour.
Peter Jones: The difference here and it’s, like I said were on a whole different topic here now but, I’ve chosen the double or quits so many times where you know, when you got some 12 points and you lose your license or like to get to those days that will take three months.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But…
Nick Abregu: They are still listing your points?
Peter Jones: Yeah, absolutely. I ride motorbikes every day and you have to, again it’s like going back to the café, you know, you have to choose…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: …whether you will be a crook by not paying your stuff correctly or you choose the right way. Now put that on reverse with the riding you know, you either choose between a **** robot and keep staring at your speedo and keep staring up, its road signs and it changes all the time trying to catch you out or, you can ride a motorbike safely and just ride to the conditions you know, and I ride to the conditions but it’s entrapment, the whole thing is just **** entrapment, there’s nothing to do with, you know, if it was road safety, they’d have the cameras outside schools and in the back of laneways where the **** are flogging along, you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But they have mall in the bloody freeway.
Nick Abregu: You know who the worst people are? It’s the moms picking up the kids.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: They’re the worst drivers.
Peter Jones: Yeah, absolutely.
Nick Abregu: They just speed there, as soon as they got their kids in the car, they just don’t give a ****. I love all moms but…
Peter Jones: I love those little kids but I’ll tell you, they are **** drivers, honestly God. You know, there was, I was crossing the road in South Yarra the other day and I swore blind it was a one-way street but it turns out it wasn’t, so I’m walking across the road, looking the other way, thinking that’s the way the traffic comes, a Jeep flogged along the way, I got on the horn, I just turned around, if I didn’t get out of the way, he’d either hit me,
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: He’d hit me and I jumped out the way so in his mind was; you’re doing the wrong thing, the sentence is death you know.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You’re walking across the road without paying attention if the sentence is death you know, and that’s just where I can’t get my head around, it’s just, you can meet the nicest person in the world in a café having a coffee with them, get them in the car and they’re just lunatics.
Nick Abregu: Yeah. I think people need to meditate a bit more.
Peter Jones: Yeah, absolutely.
Nick Abregu: Like road rage. Do you road rage?
Peter Jones: No, I lecture. I might just think it’s hilarious but what I do is just, I’ve never lost my ****, but what I do is I’ll put the window down and I point at the, I’ll go, you, wanker. And generally, that’s when the road rage comes the other way. But I’m the one who’s just, you, wanker.
Nick Abregu: I give them the old, like that was a bad move.
Peter Jones: I did this morning, as I pulled out, and the other thing that **** me over here is, in the UK, when you’re changing lanes, you put your indicator on, it’s like the parting of the seas you know, people get out of the way…
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: … and you move in it. Here, it’s like, get the **** with me.
Nick Abregu: Yah, what’s with that?
Peter Jones: You put your indicator on, they floorage, trying to block you, you know, and that’s like because I’ve got mates who I love dearly, who like, that they get in the car you know, and they’re being ****, and I’m like, what are you doing? I’m the nicest guy in the planet you get behind the wheel and you’re certainly **** ****.
Nick Abregu: I know, people just change. Horrible.
Peter Jones: You see it more on a motorbike.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, I think because we ride bikes,
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: We’re more in tune of what’s going on.
Peter Jones: You get that sixth sense, if you’re riding all the time, you do, you get that, you just know what they’re gonna do before enters even if they’re ahead, and you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You get into a rhythm, you get into…
Nick Abregu: It makes you a better car driver as well.
Peter Jones: It does, definitely.
Nick Abregu: Because every time I always hear four bikes around me,
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: As soon as I do, I just make sure you’ve stayed in a no-swearing name, you know that.
Peter Jones: Yeah, absolutely.
Nick Abregu: You can get out of the way so let them go past.
Peter Jones: And the riders have a lot of responsibilities as well, you do see a lot of riders are just being cocky you know, you look at them, and same anywhere, cyclists, you know, you’re the ones given every bad name you know, but it’s ironic because when I do that trip through Southeast Asia, it’s chaos, especially riding through India and like that, Mongolia, Cambodia, it’s chaos, it’s absolute **** chaos you know but once you get the rhythm, it’s actually a lot easier to ride there than it is to ride over here.
Nick Abregu: I agree.
Peter Jones: At least, they’re predictable you know. The rule over there is snappy winger is off, don’t worry of what’s behind you, it’s their problem.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You just concentrate of what’s in front of you.
Nick Abregu: Have you ever ridden through Vietnam?
Peter Jones: Yeah, so we did, yeah, and Cambodia.
Nick Abregu: It’s that, I used to call it the structured chaos.
Peter Jones: It is, yeah.
Nick Abregu: It’s like they all, they zoom together like a swarm of bees and if anyone starts crossing like, it just divide, and it’s like synergy.
Peter Jones: And there’s no road rage.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, like, when I was learning to, I was in Kathmandu, and I had an old Royal Enfield which had the gears and the brakes on the other way around, the old original way that the bikes used to have.
Nick Abregu: Oh, really? That’s what they were?
Peter Jones: Yeah, that’s originally motorbikes had.
Nick Abregu: So the brakes on the left.
Peter Jones: Brake on the left, gears on the right.
Nick Abregu: No, sorry. Yes.
Peter Jones: Yeah, so the opposite way around, so I had this motorbike and I have to get used to it so I strayed in on a busy Kathmandu streets, learning how to, of course, this car pulls out in front of me, instinctively, I just jammed what I thought was really brake just turned out to be the gear and I hit this guy, and he had quite a new car and I slammed straight into it and put a dent into his waiting, oh, and I was lying on the floor, and he didn’t give a **** about me. He just stuck his head out and sort of smiling and he said, can you move your bike? So I dragged my bike at the Winne drop off.
Nick Abregu: Wow.
Peter Jones: There’s no road rage there you know, it’s just…
Nick Abregu: Nice.
Peter Jones: It’s nice. There’s no angry people. There’s a lot to be said between different cultures isn’t there you know. The Western culture you know, it just seemed to be really heaped up and angry and over there, and half the time they’re living in absolute **** but they just seem to be where they couldn’t give a ****, I don’t know what it is but they seemed quite happy.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, I am. When I was riding a bike in Ho Chi Minh City, that was, I thought everyone would say like how dangerous it is and how you’re gonna die you know, these things but the reality was that it was a lot safer than riding here.
Peter Jones: I agree.
Nick Abregu: Because it was a pack mentality, you’re going together.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: And there’s like 50 people in a small group and no one bumped into each other.
Peter Jones: Absolutely. They’re very skilled and then when I was gonna do a right turn in Kathmandu with a local chap with us and I’m sitting on this junction and it’s just a constant stream of traffic.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And it’s not a **** hope in hell you’re gonna wait for a break in the traffic and it used two musing go, go and it’s like jumping into the abyss you know, you said, just go when I said, there’s no gas, he said just go. I’m sitting there dutifully with my indicator on. He is laughing at me and he said just **** go, so in the end I just revved it and you close your eyes and just go and then it’s like, I said, it’s like diving into a shoal of fish.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, when all the fish just pop around you and you know, that’s when you like, ah, I get it. I’ve got it though.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: People will get out your way.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It really will and again, don’t worry of what’s behind you, that’s their problem.
Nick Abregu: That mentality that you have to look out for them, it’s reversed.
Peter Jones: It’s reversed, yeah. What is here we have that entitlement you know, and it’s getting so bad now, like what I said, I pulled out this morning from the servo and this county was miles but I believe flawed, he’d see what I was doing, pulling out of a servo and he would have been easy 400 meters away, 500 meters away, just tooling along the Nepean honey chest. You see his bonnet raise up as he’s flawed in to trying to stop me coming out. Why? What the ****?
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: She would not want me to come out and join the traffic fun you know, and when I did walked and go, she’s ran up my ass and I …
Nick Abregu: Yeah. I think there’s a difference between people that, I don’t want to sound like a **** here but, like business owners?
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: I think we have a different mentality. We’re used to dealing with stressful situations…
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: …on a daily, like even when we get home, we’re dealing with work stuff you know.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: And I think I want to say that, that as a lot to do with the way we carry ourselves angry in public.
Peter Jones: I agree.
Nick Abregu: But no road rage, like you. You lecture people, you’d say, you’d like let me help you be a better person. I feel like that’s what happens and people that you know, that just road rage,
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: They’re just having a bad day or they can’t deal with stress or they can’t you know.
Peter Jones: It’s a different reality as well I think sometimes, because there’s been times where I’ve stepped out of the car you know, they’ve just got to the point where you know, you’ve been chased. I’ve been chased before just like you know, just go and in the end you said, right, who’s not gonna go, so I’ll pull over and then you get out and it’s like, well I just wanted to talk to you about what like, like you were just **** raging in the car like you’re gonna snap my neck two minutes ago.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And I get out the car, and you’re like, oh it’s okay mate, it’s all right, it’s all good, so I think a lot of it is they, it’s like they’re in their own little cocoons, it’s like they pick their nose in the car, it’s that you can’t think anybody else can see you but it’s,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: They’re in the car, they just don’t feel, it’s like when these guys are hanging out the window glass, going, come on you **** out, punch him like, so you go, why is your door locked? Is your door jammed? Is it okay? Get out there. No, I will be on. I’ll smash your face in there. Alright, okay, I’m here.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: But, yeah. No need for it, no need for anger.
Nick Abregu: I wouldn’t get out of the car, like someone’s already raging I may, just let them go. Just…
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: You know, if you had a bad day, just kinda go. I’m not gonna make your day worse.
Peter Jones: Yeah, don’t worry about it, yeah. And again, I think a bit being a business owner that does help, you’ve seen some bad **** or you’ve you know, you’ve been in amongst that poverty and people living in a **** existence you know, so you’ve got a more of an appreciation of life and how to enjoy life.
Nick Abregu: On that note, it hit me. It was a lot harder for me to see because I didn’t grow up in those circumstances. I grew up privileged as well.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: But it was a reality check to understand that people go through **** course.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: You know, sometimes, I mean it’s not our job to understand them, like it’s not our job to feel sorry for them but I think we do have to understand on some level…
Peter Jones: Sometimes, yeah.
Nick Abregu: That this is our society.
Peter Jones: I think sometimes all you need is somebody to just lift your chin up a little bit.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And give them a little bit of a boost you know. Give their self-esteem a little bit of a boost. I have a slightly different take on it, all I think, like I’ve said, I come from a **** existence. I’ve come from what then used to be called the working-class backgrounds actually existing, but I come from a real, I grew up in a council estate, I grew up…
Nick Abregu: What does that mean?
Peter Jones: Council estate, it’s like commission house.
Nick Abregu: Okay.
Peter Jones: Yeah, so and I had a **** mother, she’s bloody hopeless and so it was, yeah, didn’t have that normal family background but you exist, you survive and you know, you do your thing and when you’re out of that, you look back on it and think, yeah, I would never, I don’t want to be there again, I don’t want to go back to that and it’s not, I don’t look back at that even now, I don’t consider myself a victim, I don’t feel sorry for myself, I just think, that’s what it used to be like you know, and I’ve pulled my socks up, got out of that and then no longer exists you know, I look back at the child and you think yeah, you feel sorry for that child but I don’t connect with that child you know, it’s easy to sink into that victimhood, it’s easy to feel sorry for yourself all the time. There’s nothing wrong with that for a period of time, but you have to have a plan, you have a goal to get out of that.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: To pull your socks up and you know, generally speaking, the aim is to get yourself sorted. Not to be in this perpetual sorrow and victimhood.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And I think sometimes, like I said before you know, going back to what I’m saying before, sometimes, I think people are stuck in that because whether they are enjoy it or I don’t know.
Nick Abregu: Well another guest on this show, they came in and once told us about how they have issues with drugs you know, they’re exceptional human beings but they had some rough path with drugs and they said, as long as you keep, like you keep giving yourself excuses every time you would tell the story to people when he was in that, he would be stuck in that story. So he had to find a way to break it, right? Because if you keep telling the story like, I was addicted to drugs, or I was this or I was that, you were still in that story.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: Right? But he had to find a way to break it and when he broke the way he told people about that story then everything just blossomed for you.
Peter Jones: Yeah, absolutely.
Nick Abregu: But you’re right. People tend to want to stay in that story.
Peter Jones: Yeah. And when there’s narcotics involved and you know, alcohol, it’s hard because you know, you look quite often a big chuck of your life you’re not in reality.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, and when you’re not in the drug-induced coma, you’re in another **** reality.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, so it’s very, very hard, very, very hard.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, but it’s, you have to have it. You have to have that goal and you have to you know, reach out to people like you, you know, and ultimately, that’s the aim you know, I mean, I think helpers and charity workers have a responsibility as well to not keep on stroking their chins and you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Sometimes, you do need that little bit boot up the ass.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Just say, alright, come on. That’s enough, let’s get you this way.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, It’ll be a journey, of course it’s gonna be a journey but it’s a journey that has to be taken you know, and I think, and I’m probably a little bit harsher because of my background and I can see, I’ve been there and I know what it is and I know how easy it is for somebody, I was quite lucky with a mentor to lift me out of that.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And show you the way but it’s yeah, it can be incredibly tough and I see that as well with a lot of people on, again I’m gonna sound like a right-wing nothing, but a lot of people on welfare you know, this perpetual, I can’t find work and I can’t do this and I can’t do that and I know this because I’ve, a lot of my family are like that you know, but I’ve got a family who never had a job, they’re always been in the dole.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And I said to get, no **** excuse you know, that system is there to help you, you know. And there’s a few people there who were just, you know, really, especially in the UK, it’s worse in the UK because there’s such a great system, it really is. You can be quite comfortable,
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Absolutely, yeah. It can be quite comfortable having your car paid for and having a house paid for and you know, as long as you’re not, I mean never gonna be you know, rich doing it, but you can live quite comfortable and it’s you know, there’s people there that I think they’re taking that system too far you know, and again I can speak because I’ve been there. I know, and I’ve lived with these people, I’ve lived in that environment you know, quite often. I’d get caned if I was having this conversation with certain people,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, but those certain people quite often with a privilege you know, they’ve had privilege upbringing, they’ve never known welfare,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: They’ve never known poverty, they’ve never ever known violence or abuse or starvation or, they’ve never have it so they can only look,
Nick Abregu: And it’s all relative
Peter Jones: Yeah, it’s all relative yeah. I probably sound like a right-wing not enough.
Nick Abregu: But I get it.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Nick Abregu: So what advice would you give if anyone’s, I mean out 20 million listeners out there,
Peter Jones: There’s a 20 million, oh.
Nick Abregu: What advice would you give to someone that wants to, maybe that feeling, I don’t know, we’d come of so many topics here.
Peter Jones: I know.
Nick Abregu: But I want to wrap this up by giving a bit of advice to someone that’s maybe thinking about starting a business but maybe doesn’t feel too good about themselves.
Peter Jones: You know what, it’s an advice that I haven’t invented. It’s an advice that a lot so many people give and it’s just getting **** out there and they do it you know. Because you have to be brave, you have to be bold ad you have to give it a crack and it’s not being fearful of failure you know, like I said, going back to what I said before, there’s so many people I know that deserted me because I failed or they see you as a failure of Café Moto. I don’t see it as a failure, I see it, I’m proud I gave it a crack. It was brilliant, it was awesome you know, great food, great coffee, great atmosphere and I’m proud of it. If it failed because of reasons beyond my control, so don’t be afraid you know. I think people worry especially nowadays, people worry about what other people think of you know, and I’ve always, my kids have always grown up with the best gift that I can give to you is the gift of not giving a ****. Don’t give a **** about what anybody thinks about you, you know. Care about what your friends, your true friends and your family thinks about you of course, but people that around you or people you don’t know doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter either. Café Moto, like I said we had 8 thousand followers, so we had a strong social media following, but for somebody like me who’s never really into social media, we had to learn fast, I remember in the early days that people around us, the team around us are really take you to heart when you get a bad review, everyone’s gonna get a bad review you know, and half the time it’s some ****, like I was never born to be in hospitality, I don’t think because I’ve got about a minute and a half of customer service before I tell them to get **** and I think I was quite endearing to a vast majority of our customer because you’re always gonna piss people off, always you know. I think we didn’t pander to the café elite you know, the ones I should to get the influences, the **** they piss me off, influence, any influences, listen to this, you can go get ****, **** off, you arrogant, entitled twat. They come in to the café, we got so many ****, and if you give me a free meal, I’ll give you a nice little good review.
Nick Abregu: Really?
Peter Jones: Yeah, all the time.
Nick Abregu: What?
Peter Jones: If you’re a café that you know, who’s gaining in influence, they’d always get these influences.
Nick Abregu: They came in to,
Peter Jones: For a free meal.
Nick Abregu: Oh my God.
Peter Jones: Not only for a free food but they want to bring their family. I’m bringing my family on Thurs, not even, can I, but I’ll be bringing my family on Thursday. I’ve got X amount of followers on Instagram you know, I’ll give you a favor of you if you give me a favorable bill and I’ll say, well you can get ****, you know. So the next minute,
Nick Abregu: Wow!
Peter Jones: You’ve got a bad review.
Nick Abregu: Wow!
Peter Jones: Fake bad review. So that goes on.
Nick Abregu: Yeah that’s…
Peter Jones: Absolute crap. It’s just bullets, lots and lots of bullets. So, in the early days, we get these reviews and the team, because we’ve built such a great team you know, it’s a great vibe, it’s really you know, people loved being there and then you get this review or somebody make a comment on a Facebook post you did, you know, people take it at heart you know, I’d just reply but if you wanna laugh, go, I don’t know it this is still up there now, but if you wanna laugh, go up and have a look at the Google reviews for Café Moto, there’s my responses there. I just, you know, if there was a genuine **** respondents, yet sorry man, you know, like it took 20 minutes to get out coffee and I’d investigate it and the guy said, oh I have the coffee machine broke down or the grinder,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And I’d reply back, yeah, you know what, we did right, we **** up. Stop the ball, come in, we’ll give you free coffee but then you get the ones that, we had one guy came in and he ordered a soy latte and we were under the pump, we didn’t do any latte on it.
Nick Abregu: No!
Peter Jones: Because soy milk, I’m **** not even joking, soy milk is a little bit harder to do in large, yeah. SO he comes back with his coffee.
Nick Abregu: Are you kidding me?
Peter Jones: No, I’m not even joking.
Nick Abregu: Oh my God.
Peter Jones: That’s the only start of it. So he’s **** and moaning and in the end, I just, and we know the pump, and he’s just rattling on in my ear, on the side, and I’m going, just **** off, juts go, **** off.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And the next bit of course, we’ve got it bad for you and I responded you know, and I’m quite gifted with writing and so yeah, I don’t know if it’s still up there but if you want to laugh.
Nick Abregu: I guess you should publish a book of bad reviews and responds now.
Peter Jones: I should have kept them.
Nick Abregu: They’re probably still up there.
Peter Jones: We have people coming in saying, I’m only coming in because I’ve read your hilarious responses on Google.
Nick Abregu: Really? Dude, you should make it into a book.
Peter Jones: I know, I’d love to find out if they’re still there actually, but yeah, it was hilarious. But you know what, it comes back to that, juts ****, get a grip yourself, you know, just let’s get back to normal you know,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: I don’t know what it is in the world today and I’m old enough to remember the old days where, you know everything was lively, it was perfect but you know, it went to sucky low life, we were too offended, we were so bloody, you know, nowadays, you got to watch what you say and Ricky Gervais is a huge hero.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: He’s just don’t give a ****.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, I know. I actually, yesterday, watch the Golden Globe.
Peter Jones: Yeah, that was absolutely… easy you know, and it’s ironic that he’s one of the biggest lefty-loveys out there but he’s been accused of being right weight.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Because of the comments, because he’s force free speech and they’re just really fear, free speeches is just getting stifled nowadays, and you know, it’s just.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: I do, I’m old enough to remember the old days and I think I’m just worried where we’re going.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: I’m worried about…
Nick Abregu: I think we’re definitely taking a turn two parts on the other side but I think it’ll balance out in the next you know.
Peter Jones: I hope so, I think, another hero of mine, Stephen Fry, another lefty-lovey, and I was listed in one of his podcasts actually, recently, and he was saying the same thing, he’s got his new podcast out called seven deadly sins, sorry for promoting a different podcast.
Nick Abregu: We’d cancel this podcast.
Peter Jones: It’s Stephen Fry and he said he was talking about the divide that’s grown between the left and right you know, and I consider myself probably center-right if anything you know, having come from poverty I thought that I don’t to be poor again, you know, I really do consider myself centered but some of the things I say, you just get instantly labeled,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, you’re right-wing racist you know. What the ****, I’m a racist because I’ve comment on certain things or why am I misogynist or why you know, instantly get labeled you know.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: I’ve got strong views of women in the military and combat role, that’s my view. It doesn’t mean it’s right or it’s wrong.
Nick Abregu: We’re entitled to.
Peter Jones: But I’m entitled to have an opinion based on my experience. In combat, I have a view, it’s a view by Peter Jones, it’s not gonna be set into law, it’s a view that I have but in certain places, in certain circumstances, you can’t have that conversation, you can’t bring your point of view across based on your experience because you just get flogged and you’re a right-wing nothing. So yeah, I feel, but yes as Stephen Fry he was saying that the divide is getting bigger and bigger and bigger, there’s a big ravine that’s opened up and you get all the dirty right-wing nuts on one side and the left-wing nutters on the other, and on the middle, the vast majority looking up going, what the **** is going on?
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: How does these all happening?
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: It’s really scary, and I think, I hope it does sort itself out and I think it look like it’ll get worse before it gets better. Let’s see.
Nick Abregu: But change is always good, right?
Peter Jones: It is, absolutely. Yeah, I think so.
Nick Abregu: Makes people think…
Peter Jones: There’s no doubt about it. There’s things a lot better, some things are a lot better you know, better health, better educated and so many things that are so much better.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: I think we lost our sense of humor somewhere.
Nick Abregu: I think so too.
Peter Jones: Definitely lost our sense of humor so much.
Nick Abregu: It’s fun to be funny.
Peter Jones: I can’t take in the piss
Nick Abregu: It’s fun to be funny.
Peter Jones: When do we stop taking the piss? That’s what I wanted.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: When do we stop having the ability to take the piss.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know.
Nick Abregu: And a piece of yourself.
Peter Jones: Take a piece of yourself.
Nick Abregu: That’s so important.
Peter Jones: Absolutely, you know my kids rip the **** out of me mercilessly, because I ripped the **** out of them you know and listen to the some of the conversations in our house you know, we’d probably arrested but you know what, we take the piss out of each other and you know, it’s hilarious. My daughter’s a screaming lesbian and she’s **** hilarious and she’s got the best sense of humor,
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And takes the piss out of ourselves, calls herself a **** daikon.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: You know, doesn’t take offense, doesn’t you know, it’s and she’s a good positive force within her community and she goes to all the LGBTQRSTVUV whatever that is, she goes to all of the events and you know, we go with her and she’s got a really good strong tight-knit friendship group around her and they stopped taking the piss.
Nick Abregu: Yeah. That’s nice.
Peter Jones: Yeah, nothing like, oh I’m in this community therefore you have to treat me different. We’re all the same, we’re all exactly the same you know.
Nick Abregu: There’s gonna be **** in every community.
Peter Jones: Of course, yeah. But it’s that ability to say that you know.
Nick Abregu: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Why…
Nick Abregu: Yeah. Peter, I’m gonna wrap this up. It’s been an absolute pleasure, thank you.
Peter Jones: It’s fun, thank you.
Nick Abregu: Did you enjoyed it?
Peter Jones: Yeah, absolutely. Seemed like it’s four and a half minutes ago since we started.
Nick Abregu: I know right. I’d like to be but it’s like, it’s flowing boy.
Peter Jones: That’s been fantastic now. I really appreciate it, allowing me to come in.
Nick Abregu: Yeah, thanks for letting everyone know about Café Moto and all the adventures and everything you’ve done.
Peter Jones: It’s a shame our marketing plug is closed now.
Nick Abregu: Well you can use this for the next venture,
Peter Jones: Yeah
Nick Abregu: But I think there will be so many more to go.
Peter Jones: There will be.
Nick Abregu: Dude, a real pleasure.
Peter Jones: Thank you very much.
Nick Abregu: Thank you everyone for listening. Cheers.