What happens when you say yes to the unexpected? In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, I chat with Pamdiana Jones, an accidental world traveler who turned a spontaneous “yes” into a three-year solo adventure across South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. With just $1,200 in her bank account, Pamdiana bungee-jumped (literally and figuratively) into a life of adventure and later captured it all in her bestselling travel memoir “When in ROAM”.
She shares how those wild moments, like being chased by elephants or getting shoved off a bungee platform, transformed her life and inspired her journey from waitress to award-winning author. If you’ve ever dreamed of taking a leap, writing a book, or shaking up your life, this one’s for you!
In This Episode, We Explore…
Connect with Pamdiana:
Website - https://pamdianajones.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pamdianajones
Book | When in ROAM - https://pamdianajones.com/shop
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Signup to learn more about life as a Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Traveling Therapist podcast. Today's guest is not a therapist. You guys know, sometimes I venture off the therapist path and invite other guests on that I think are super interesting and can offer value to all of the traveling therapists out there. I should have practiced her name before. Is it Pamdiana Jones.
[00:00:19] Pamdiana: it's actually a spoof on the Indiana Jones movie, so I'm Pamdiana Jones.
[00:00:24] Kym: Oh, oh, I love it. I love that so much. She's an author, adventurer, and accidental world traveler. Her debut book, When in ROAM, ROAM, is a fast paced, laugh out loud travel memoir that follows her three years. Solo journey through South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.
[00:00:48] Filled with, how did I survive all those moments. Like being shoved off a bungee platform. After deciding not to jump, since she's become an international bestseller author won a SOLAS award for travel writing and even published her grandfather's 1963 Treasure Hunting novel. If you love travel storytelling and the magic that happens when you say yes, even by accident, this episode is for you.
[00:01:14] Welcome. I'm so excited to talk to you and just learn about everything that you're doing. So if we could, can we just jump in and start with this, like I accidentally traveled around the world solo thing and how it just sort of went into this whole book and everything that you wrote, everything you're doing in your life. I'd love to just jump right in.
[00:01:33] Pamdiana: Yes. Thanks for having me on, Kim. Thank you for that invite. I'm 54 now, so in 1994, my moving truck had gotten stolen full of everything I owned, so I had literally the outfit on my back. So what turned out to be devastating, turned out to be the most freeing thing that could have ever happened in my life.
[00:01:51] I was in San Diego, California, and my sister wanted to move to Park City, Utah. So we started waiting tables there for snow season and I met a gentleman named Jay and we weren't dating or anything, but I said, what are you doing when the snow melts? And he goes, I'm going and surfing in South Africa.
[00:02:07] And let me pause there and just share a little bit about my family. My grandparents were British, but my grandfather worked for Imperial Airways, which is British Airways now. And his job was to clear the hippos from the Nile in Egypt so the water planes could land. And he helped to begin aviation around the Middle East.
[00:02:25] And he would land and learn where to make the airports. So all the airports throughout the Middle East are my grandfather had a hand in, and then they lived in South Africa for years as well. And then my mother went to Kenya and Tanzania in the 1970s. So my grandparents were there in the 1930s.
[00:02:40] So when he said South Africa, I just went, wow. And he goes, oh, do you wanna go? I went, yeah. I had $1,200 to my name in my bank account, and the ticket was $1,175.
[00:02:54] Kym: No way.
[00:02:55] Pamdiana: I brought him the cash and he couldn't believe it. He said, most people find excuses as why they can't go. Well, we were leaving in 30 days and that gave me 30 days to sell my car for around $3,000.
[00:03:05] And I've been to Hawaii once and Mexico a couple times, that's kind of the Southern California popular places. So, we took a 29 hour flight and then a 29 hour train ride from Johannesburg to Cape Town and maybe three days in as we're landing into Cape Town, I can see my reflection in the passing trains glass and it finally hits me. I'm here, I'm in Africa. I did it. Wow.
[00:03:29] And Jay taught me to travel so dirt cheap. I didn't know how much it was gonna be, so I thought a thousand dollars a month. I don't know. Well, we bought a car there and we sold it on the way out. So that was cheap. He taught me to travel with, don't go out to a cafe for a $5 meal and don't wash your laundry for $5.
[00:03:46] Wash your laundry in the sink with a bar of soap and buy a bag of white rice and eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for $2 a week. So I'm a foodie. I'm a
[00:03:55] Kym: Yeah.
[00:03:55] Pamdiana: And this was, but I thought, okay, I'll do it. Well, we only traveled together for about six weeks and then his sister, his sister gets married and he doesn't wanna miss out.
[00:04:04] So I thought, oh, I'm still having friends here and meeting friends and having adventures and I'm not ready to go home. So I thought I would continue on and travel on my own just in South Africa. Well, he taught me to travel so cheap. I only spent $900 in three months.
[00:04:17] So I asked the stewardess on the flight home when I was landing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I go, can I get off the flight? And she said, yes sweetie, your ticket's good for a year. I didn't know what Jay had bought, so I thought I called my mom, don't pick me up, but you know, I'm still going. And she lucky for me, I've got an adventure mom. She said, have a great time. Be safe.
[00:04:36] So I thought, you know, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, all of a sudden Indonesia's right there, so I start heading to small islands and then Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, and then I thought Australia's right there and New Zealand's right there. I'd only spent another thousand dollars in four more months of Asia. So I still have about $1,500 and I start working in Australia and New Zealand and just love that side of the world, so I stayed put for a good year and a half over there. That's how I accidentally traveled the world for nearly three years.
[00:05:04] Kym: That is amazing. So how old were you, like during, is this like,
[00:05:08] Pamdiana: 24 to 27.
[00:05:10] Kym: 24 to 27. Okay. Wow. Oh my gosh. That is amazing. It's so brave.
[00:05:15] Pamdiana: I look back and it feels normal 'cause we all think our own lives are normal, you know? So, but I look, if someone had told me you're gonna travel the world alone for three years, I would've went, no, not me. I don't even go out to eat by myself. I never a movie by myself. So you learn a lot about yourself.
[00:05:31] Some days you wanna stay in and read a book, and some days you wanna go to the beach, some days you wanna kayak. So you go rent a kayak and you go kayaking, and then you meet other kayakers and they go, Hey, let's grab lunch, or something like that. So you find your tribe.
[00:05:42] Kym: Yes. Oh my gosh. I, I just love that story so much. So how are you making money then? Are you like working odd jobs? Because like, we're therapists, right? So we just take our practices with us. But I'm so curious, are you just like working cafes and that kind of thing? Or like, how are you making money doing this?
[00:05:58] Pamdiana: At one point I sold t-shirts on the beach. Uh, It was a big festival, so I, I helped a friend run a booth. I washed airplanes in Darwin, Australia. I didn't even realize airplanes got dirty, but, I went, all right, I'll do that. And then my favorite job in the whole world. Still to this day. I taught snorkeling lessons on the Great Barrier Reef. So I'm getting paid to go snorkel every day at the Great Barrier Reef. But a lot of waitressing and bartending. I even picked up some radio ads because down under, they liked my accent, so they said, oh, run this ad, run that ad. So that was kind of fun. Some cleaning houses work, just whatever I could get, you know.
[00:06:33] Kym: How do you decide you're gonna write a book? were you always a writer? Because the therapist listening, a lot of us are burned out. Right. We've got like 40 clients a week and it's just exhausting and they're trying to travel too, and you can't really even see the places 'cause you're working so much.
[00:06:48] And a lot of them come to me and say, I wanna write a book or something, you know, to like have another income stream or to get outta that one-to-one model that they're stuck in. So i'm curious, like how do you go from what you're doing to like, oh, now I'm gonna write a book about this? Walk us through all of that. I just think it's so interesting.
[00:07:02] Pamdiana: I was not a writer. I'd always wanted to be, I remember being a kid and trying to write a story here and there, and it was silly and I felt a little bit embarrassed and didn't share it with anyone. For 20 years, when people hear about my travels, they go tell me adventure story. So I have fine tuned it so well that I know when people are gonna laugh.
[00:07:19] I know what to leave out or just enough to not just drag on and on, you know? So, I fine tuned it a little bit and I'd been told for 20 years I should write a book. Oh my God, you should write a book about your travels. Oh my God, you should write that book and then eat, pray, love came out and swept the world.
[00:07:35] And while I loved it and I loved her adventures, I have stronger adventures, maybe she, if people aren't familiar with that story, half of the book is her divorce. So I kept flipping through, like when do we get to the travel stuff? And she eats a lot of pasta in Italy. She rides her bike in Bali and she goes and meditates in India.
[00:07:55] And those are great for her. And a lot of the book is her in-depth growth, but, I start with a stabbing on the train in Africa that's all my fault, on page one. I get chased by a herd of wild elephants. I'm scuba diving with a bleeding hand while sharks chasing me, so I, I don't know what I'm doing. The cover, let me show you the cover of my book.
[00:08:15] Kym: Yes. We'll see it.
[00:08:16] Pamdiana: It Pamdiana Jones, When in ROAM, but ROAM. And I'm being shoved off of a bungee platform after I've just told my friend I don't want a bungee.
[00:08:24] Kym: Oh
[00:08:25] Pamdiana: my face. It's pure terror. Like did you even clip me in? Right. But I chose that cover because I'm fumbling my way into all sorts of adventures that I don't know anything about, but
[00:08:35] Kym: That is why I would kill somebody if they pushed me off.
[00:08:37] Pamdiana: Right. Yeah. We're still dear friends, like, are you wanna be on the cover? He's like, yes. So, but he said, most people don't even climb up if they're not a little interested and
[00:08:44] Kym: Yeah.
[00:08:45] Pamdiana: So I call him, oh, you're a real giver. You're Mother Theresa. You're, you're such a giver in the book, you know?
[00:08:51] But I got married later in life at 38 to a high school sweetie, and we ended up with boy, girl twins when I turned 40. So I'm a little bit late bloomer with the family here. And I thought when they were five I thought, I don't want them to just remember me folding laundry and doing dishes.
[00:09:06] So I started, I have insomnia, so I just thought, let me ride a little bit when they go to sleep. And I literally started with post-it notes and I wrote the book for me. What if I'm a old lady and get Alzheimer's and wanna read it over and over again? I can relive it that way, but on post-it notes, I go Africa, the stabbing on the train, the chase by her elephants, and a couple other quirky things.
[00:09:25] And then I went to Thailand, just little, you know, two or three sentences about what I was going to write. And it just grew and grew and grew and grew from there. On page one, I say I caught my reflection in Africa and I do a short backstory of how I got there, meeting Jay, and then it just takes off and,
[00:09:41] I write it in present tense, mid nineties. So I have to be authentic to that time. like even saying the word stewardess, people don't say that anymore, but I go, I asked the stewardess, can I get off the flight? So there's a, you have to weigh things. How's it gonna be judged by today's eyes? But I decided I'm gonna be super authentic to that time 'cause it's I was told later, oh, oh good, nobody's writing about the nineties.
[00:10:03] And I thought. Why not? The music was awesome. every city I go to, I put a little um, song. So I've made a playlist on Spotify as well. So something that was popular or something that has quirky lyrics that go with that that chapter,
[00:10:15] Kym: love that.
[00:10:16] Pamdiana: There's a short chapter where I, I met a glacier in New Zealand and I used the Oasis Wonder Wall song.
[00:10:21] You know, just things like that, that it's a little quirky, you know. there's current events in there too. The OJ Simpson trial was going on. We were learning about a lot about Nelson Mandela that we hadn't learned in school here. We learned in Africa there. And I'm like, oh, I didn't know some of these things.
[00:10:36] So, I'm a bit of an optimistic traveler. If someone goes, Hey, you should go check that. I'd go, okay, it's gonna be great. And I'd go, yes, please. I'll stay at your house. So you learn to trust that instinct. I think it's a muscle and when you use it, you get it. When you don't use it, it, it's quiet.
[00:10:50] Kym: That's amazing. I, I can't wait to read your book. It's actually on my list, like
[00:10:54] Pamdiana: Oh, thank you.
[00:10:55] Kym: So you start writing the book and it's just flowing out of you and it's an amazing book. So how did you self publish? Or do you like go look for a publisher and then like how did that process happen? And then how do you become a bestseller and then win an award? Like, that's so cool to me.
[00:11:08] Pamdiana: You are gonna laugh. I wrote the book, it took three years. So three years to write a three year journey was unexpected because I was, I just write when I can, not every day.
[00:11:16] But then I hired an editor and she stunk, I gotta tell you, she said, we have to cut 10,000 words. And I went, okay. And then on page one, I meet a balding man, and we stand up and shake hands on the train and she adds three pages of how I don't trust bald people and I don't know what to make of his receding hairline and stuff. I go, whatcha talking about?
[00:11:36] Kym: What?
[00:11:37] Pamdiana: What are you talking about? So I went, all right, you don't, we are not vibing here. And then I heard a second editor that also stunk. I have a page that says Australia as you go into that country. And she went Australia on the next page and Thailand. So, and just big, huge mistakes like that.
[00:11:54] One of the songs I chose was Depeche Mode, enjoy the Silence. I hand her silence, she hands me back. Science. With the red jagged line. And I go, are you gonna fix that? And she said yes. And got rid of the red jagged line, but still handed me back slides. So I go, I don't have time to edit my editor. So I actually took two more years to learn to edit.
[00:12:14] So I think the universe is telling me, I, if I'm gonna do this big time, I better learn my craft a bit better. So I Googled what do editors look for? And I learned as women, we write "just" and "that" way more than men do.
[00:12:28] Kym: Interesting.
[00:12:29] Pamdiana: So I would write, I'll just go to the market so that I can buy some bread and a man goes, I'll go to the market and buy bread. So I cut out a thousand justs and thats, and it seemed more professional.
[00:12:40] At the end of my book, I went to my first writer's seminar and I was like, I'm gonna be awesome. Everyone's gonna be interested in my book. And the first teacher that I saw in the class, she goes, now, if you have a thousand exclamation points, you're a total amateur. And I slung down and I went, I better go.
[00:12:58] Kym: like, oh my God. I always use exclamation
[00:13:00] Pamdiana: I had said the shark, like five of those. When you see a shark, I, so now isn't that stronger as a reader? Reader, as the, I cut my hand and the blood is floating by and I'm talking about how it's, looks so peaceful and then I see the shark coming towards me. Period. So isn't that as a reader, you kind of just go, what did I just read that is stronger than all the exclamation points.
[00:13:21] So, and let me show you a couple of things here. Because I took the time. Can you see that? It says, it says ard, I added a line above it and music songs and things like that and I added maps, oh, and kind of the cities where I went
[00:13:38] Kym: love that. I love that in a book where you can like, like reference it, you know, instead of like having to go to your phone and like, look like the, where's South Africa? You know, like that whole thing. Yeah.
[00:13:46] Pamdiana: Well, I think because. The universe wanted me to slow down. I thought, how can I polish this up even better and more and more So, that came later, the line and the music was right before I published properly, so I thought, oh, now it's perfect. I'm so glad I didn't put out that sloppy mess that I had before.
[00:14:03] So I'm not Stephen King. I don't have to pump out 10 a year. So to your therapist that would like to write a book, it'll be finished when it's finished. You might be excited or you might have picked a, a due date, but don't share that due date with everybody until you're actually ready, you know?
[00:14:18] And there's many travel books, but my experience is different. So as traveling therapists, your story matters. It's going to affect someone somewhere because your story is different than everyone else's.
[00:14:30] Kym: Yeah. And I, can witness to that. Every therapist I interview in here, I'll almost always, I get an email from somebody that says, thank you. That just changed my life. Like hearing that person's story, you know?
[00:14:41] So then how do you become like a bestselling author with the book and like, win an award? I did it get recognized? You know, I just wonder about that too, like, it's so cool.
[00:14:51] Pamdiana: You submit stories to different contests and see what happens. And I had created my own publishing company, so I. I am my own publisher, so I did self-publish, but it's my own publishing company, so I could choose to also publish my grandfather's book, which we'll talk about in a moment.
[00:15:07] But, so I submitted a story. You're gonna laugh. The town in Africa is called Shush Lui. It's very awkward to pronounce, but I meet three guys. This is after Jay is gone and they said, do you wanna share costs and rent a car and go through shush luie? So we drive for hours. I met them yesterday. The one's from Scotland, one's from England, one's from New Zealand.
[00:15:25] So we're just getting to know each other. And we pull up to the wrong side of shish Luie and there is a Zulu local that is standing there. He's wearing a sweater and jeans. So that's it's not way out in the bush, you know? But my new friend holds up a bag of marijuana seeds and he shakes it at the guy, and the guy goes, yeah, and he jumps in the car with us and for two hours he's pointing up these hills and we have to get out and push the car over rocks.
[00:15:50] And it's a whole thing. Finally we come to proper Zulus that are just wearing the best way to describe it as a hula skirt with, and they're fully nude on top, including the woman, and they've got white clay all over their skin and the woman's carrying a big old pot and they put up their hands and they go like, you can't go this way.
[00:16:07] They're not speaking English, but their body language is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is our land. And then they see their buddy in the car and they lean in. They're like, Hey, what's going on? He's explaining we would like some marijuana and they laugh and they wave us on and. Up we go to a little village of round huts with goats and chickens everywhere and thatched roofs.
[00:16:26] And out comes big mama. We're at Big Mama's Hut and the new Zulu guy shakes the bag of seeds at her and she goes out and she gets a huge barrel of already pruned, I don't know about marijuana that much, so I don't know the buds or whatever. And it's already filled and it, she scoops in two Handsworth with her apron and my New Zealand friend goes watch me bargain with her.
[00:16:49] And she says in perfect English, she goes, six bucks. He goes, okay. So he's like, yeah. So we grab a pillowcase, put it all in, and they actually invited us for dinner, which I wish we had stayed, but my friends wanna now get high. So off we go to, we find the right entrance to sh Louis. We're inside the animal park.
[00:17:07] It's got lions and buffalo and rhinos and hippos and the whole thing. But we are staying in a tree house. So you climb up a little ladder and there's two A framed with. Like two twin beds in there and I haven't smoked in years. It's not my thing. I get sleepy, but I thought after this adventure, I'm gonna have a smoke on this.
[00:17:24] So we get a little bit high and we decide. my friend Timothy from Scotland, he goes I think I call him Tristan in the book. He goes, we're in Africa. Let's go for a walk. And it's two in the morning and dumb, high people go, okay. So we start walking for about a mile in the middle of the night. I have a little tiny pen, flashlight, and then all of a sudden, and we're laughing, cracking jokes, and we hear a huge stick break and it hits all of us. Oh my God. We're inside the animal park. There's lions and there's whatever.
[00:17:54] Kym: oh my gosh.
[00:17:55] Pamdiana: I shine my, we all back up to against each other and I shine my light against the bushes. There is thousands of eyeballs looking at us, different heights, different sizes. We go, my friend goes run and we just book it back to the up the ladder and we laugh the rest of the night away and we hear a lion's roar right when we get back and it's like, thank God that's not for us. So I submit this story as a adventure that no one else is gonna have. And I win the award for shopping.
[00:18:26] So it takes me a minute. I, I go, I won an award for, did I just win an award for buying marijuana? So that's not quite the award I wanted, but that's the one I won. So you kind of go
[00:18:38] Kym: That is hilarious.
[00:18:40] Pamdiana: so, my kids are not allowed to read this book till they're 30, is my
[00:18:43] Kym: Yeah, that makes sense. That's hilarious. Oh my gosh.
[00:18:47] Pamdiana: So the book is filled with just weird things that only happened to me.
[00:18:50] Kym: I can't wait to read it. Actually, I'm taking the entire month of August off the traveling therapist will love to hear this. Like, I've worked just too much and I talk about it all the time on here, but all of August and I'm gonna be on the beach down in south Florida and I'm reading this book on the beach. That is like one of my goals.
[00:19:06] Pamdiana: Wonderful. How fun. Thank you for including when in ROAM, in your Florida trip. I get a lot of customers that are going on a cruise or going to the beach or going to Hawaii. What can they read or I'm part of a lot of travel groups on Facebook and Instagram and all that, where they just go, I need a book and mine just gets recommended now.
[00:19:23] So I love that it's taking on a life of its own where people are re recommending it to their friends. Sometimes I'll be scrolling and I'll see someone recommend that I didn't know.
[00:19:32] Kym: That's so exciting. and now you've gone on to write your grandfather's story and also three children's adventure books, right? Is the next
[00:19:42] Pamdiana: I'm only 20 pages away from my second comedy travel memoir. I mean to end with a spoiler, but the first book I travel solo and the second book I meet up with some of the friends that I met from book one and go to their home countries. And one gal invites me through the South Pacific Islands.
[00:19:57] So we go to Easter Island, Mere, Tahiti, Fiji, Western Samoa, and a few more. So some of these friendships last a lifetime I'm finding.
[00:20:05] Kym: that is amazing. Oh my gosh. What a cool story. Just life actually. What a cool life you've lived. Do you travel now with the kids and stuff? Did you guys take adventures like this
[00:20:16] Pamdiana: When I remet my husband, I was 32 and we had dated a little bit when I was 16 and he was 18 and a half 19, and he joined the army and left. And we weren't in love or anything, so we didn't stay in touch. We'd run into each other over the years. We both, are you single? No, I'm seeing someone.
[00:20:31] Are you single? No, I'm living with somebody. Are you single? No. So, when I got home from my travels and I bought a place in San Diego, my sister called me, guess who's single? And I thought, oh wow, me too. This is exciting. And I thought, he lives in Los Angeles, we're gonna, it's two hours away. So, but he, I was moving in that weekend and he goes, I'll help you move in.
[00:20:50] And he never left. He moved in that first night too. We tell our kids that's exactly what not to do. So 22 years ago, actually just in a couple days in July here, so I thought, is he the one or not? And we went to Costa Rica. He'd never traveled. So I got him Christmas tickets to Costa Rica. And let put it this way, I'm not a wealthy person.
[00:21:09] I was waiting tables that whole time. So I'm saving up, saving up, saving up. And then here's our tickets. And now I know if it comes down to it, you can travel as cheaply as you need to with those bags of rice and the laundry thing.
[00:21:20] But the minute we get to Costa Rica, he goes, oh my God, we're young. We can go somewhere new every year. I go, ah, he gets it. So we had traveled quite a bit, but then with children now, especially as a stay-at-home mom, we we're on the one income four tickets adds up quite quickly. So we realized we can save up and go somewhere every three years with them. So. When they were one, they went to Hawaii, and then when they were five, they went to Australia.
[00:21:44] And then when they were eight, they went to Bali and Hong Kong, and then the pandemic hit and we took 'em to Hawaii when they were 12 again. But that trip came about in just two days. I go, Hey guys, I just found some $200 tickets to Hawaii, and we have a timeshare and we're about to lose it. So if we just go to the supermarket, we can go pretty cheap, you know?
[00:22:04] So I go, that's your 12th birthday gift, but for 13 we're gonna have pizza, a pizza hut. And I'm sorry that's, you know. But so five years later now, we just spent last summer in Europe and did a sixth country Italy, France. We flew into London and flew out of Norway and we accidentally went too far on the train to Monaco and the Vaticans its own country. So turned into six country epic things.
[00:22:26] Kym: How amazing. And how amazing and cool that you've already been to these places. So like you're like an insider in a lot of ways.
[00:22:32] Pamdiana: never been through Europe at all. I'd been to England. I've been to England several times 'cause I have relatives there. But I took the channel to Paris for lunch one day and it happened to be Bastille Day. That's gonna be in the second book. 'Cause I get lucky, like, what's, what's going on at the Eiffel Tower?
[00:22:45] Why is it so crazy? Oh, today's Bastille Day. Well, what's Bastille Day? I'd never heard of it. So that's their 4th of July. It's just the biggest party ever. And I'm only there for the one day. So, and I went to the Canary Islands, but I'd never been through Europe, so this was my big European trip too.
[00:22:59] So, because I had taken them to Bali in Australia and I had already been there actually three times before for both of those places. Because I've traveled in between all that now too. And I just love that side of the world. I could see certain towns that used to be a sleeping little fishing village looks like Las Vegas now. So sometimes that's harder. And I needed a trip where I hadn't been there before. 'cause I could see it with fresh eyes instead of comparing it, you know?
[00:23:23] And my town has changed a thousand times in 25 years. Why would I expect there's not to? It's odd and weird, but I'm like, there's a few towns where I will never go back 'cause I don't wanna ruin how perfect it was, you know?
[00:23:33] Let me share with you my prologue of my book. I meet the singer Rod Stewart. I'm waiting on Rod Stewart, and I am so dumb. I think it's a guy that looks like Rod Stewart. So I think this guy's really playing up this Rod Stewart angle. What a, what a schmooze, you know, and he asked me would I like to be in a video and I jack a joke and go, no, but you can be a busboy here at the, at the restaurant, you know?
[00:23:59] And he looks at me like, what? Like you're the only waitress in all of Los Angeles that doesn't want a part in something. So I, I still think he's a guy that looks like Rod Stewart. So as he, he paid the bill at the hostess and I could see on the bill it said Rod Stewart. And I went, that's a huge missed opportunity.
[00:24:15] I just saw my life went in two different directions and I thought, I'm never gonna say no again. I'm gonna say yes and then figure it out. So thank you. Rod Stewart is kind of an homage in my book of. I'm riding a bull in New Zealand. I'm all thank you Rod Stewart. I'm shoveling coal on a steamship. Thank you Rod Stewart.
[00:24:31] So I wouldn't have been there had I not missed that huge opportunity and he'll never remember me. But he's changed my life because of that moment. I saw it split of there was an old Lifesavers commercial, I don't know if you guys remember this, but it was probably from the eighties, but it was two old men on a porch and they were sharing lifesavers.
[00:24:48] And they go, remember that summer with those Swedish girls? And the other one goes, yeah, we should have went with them.
[00:24:54] Kym: Yeah.
[00:24:55] Pamdiana: with the girls, with the Swedish, that those girls, with the Swedish that summer they should have. And they still think about it 80 years later. So I didn't wanna live that way ever, and I thought, no, I'll have those the summer with the Swedish girls for me all the time.
[00:25:08] But I think I get asked that a little bit of how do you start and you just take that leap like Indiana Jones is walking on that path that he thinks is invisible. You know, you just go, all right, why not me? Why should wonderful things happen to other people? Why not me? And it's always about decision and, and not just decision. It's about action. Take the action and fumble through it. The best advice I heard about writing a book is you can't edit an empty page.
[00:25:32] And I thought my Yes whole book came together through editing, not through writing. So you write down the whole thing, just make it that sloppy sentence that doesn't make sense.
[00:25:41] And then you go, no, that doesn't fit. Let me clean it up. No, lemme clean it up more. And then it becomes what you really meant to say. So just start. Just buy that ticket. Just sit at your computer and write something. Write two sentences every day and see what happens. You know?
[00:25:56] Kym: I love it. I love
[00:25:57] Pamdiana: Back to my grandfather's book I had, it's called The Secret of Oak Island by
[00:26:02] Kym: Oh,
[00:26:03] Pamdiana: And you can find it. Thank you. You can find it through my Pamdiana Jones name as well. But, they're both on Amazon, but he wrote a book and my mom knew it, and she handed me the box, Hey, you're an author too, she goes, I don't know what it's about or anything.
[00:26:15] And then I started reading it and it's, there's a true treasure hunt on Oak Island that from the History channel that for 10 years they've been looking for the treasure. And ocean water comes in where they can't find it, but there's, they can, when they drill down, there's gold on the tip. So they know it's there, they just can't get to it.
[00:26:30] My mom is a natural triplet and it's starring my mom as a 13-year-old. So it's a total goonies adventure, perfect for family fun. My poor grandpa, he was a one finger typer on a paper, so to have a computer now and to be able to transfer it over. And I kept it word for word what he said, and I enhanced a few things that I knew what he meant. But mostly it's his, it's his word and it's authentic to the 1960s.
[00:26:52] So I'm doing very well with, uh, book signings at elderly senior care places as well. There's a few golly g Willickers in there, but mostly it's ahead of its time. There's scenes from National Treasure that are in my grandfather's book from the sixties that I just go, wow, that is a Hollywood movie now.
[00:27:08] So, and like I said, he was an adventurer living in Africa and he, he had joined the Navy when he was 14 and lied about his age. And then with the aviation. So some of those true stories weave through this adventure too.
[00:27:21] Kym: Oh my gosh. That is awesome. Now you've got another book for me to read on my
[00:27:25] Pamdiana: Right. So I think I found a new career at 50. I didn't know what I was doing. You just jump in with both feet and enjoy the the process.
[00:27:34] Kym: Yeah. I, I love that. That's the best advice ever. so where do people find you if they want to look up your books or learn more about you?
[00:27:41] Pamdiana: I have a website, but I'm still working on it. It's pamdianajones.com, but most people find me on Amazon. so, um, yeah, Pamdiana Jones. I've got the two books published when in ROAM, but ROAM. That one's rated R people, so choose wisely. then the teen book is the Secret of Oak Island and my next book is the Comedy Travel Memoir.
[00:28:00] It's gonna be called Roaming Oceania. And I've got three children's books written, but they're being illustrated right now. And those will be for about five to seven kind of Magic Tree house, if anybody's familiar with that. yeah, just my kids find a portal and they go off to meet Santa or the Tooth Fairy or George Washington and stuff. So
[00:28:18] Kym: How fun. Do they have titles yet that those
[00:28:21] Pamdiana: I think I'm gonna call the first one something weird on Christmas eve. and then the second one will be something weird this way, something weird with a tooth fair, something weird with that.
[00:28:29] So I think I can make a little more serious about that. But just getting illustrated slowly as is, as it needs to.
[00:28:35] Kym: Oh, I love it. I can't wait for you. to publish all these. So Cool. And I can't wait to read your book. Thank you. for taking the time today. Very inspiring. And just what amazing adventures you've gone through and lived through. Amazing.
[00:28:47] Pamdiana: Thank you so much for having me on.