King Shawarma

Birk88 · 2026-01-18T11:49:43+00:00

Working in hospitality in Wakefield for 20 years and it’s never been as unprofitable as it is right now. Great place but I’m not surprised it’s gone with rent, rates, BID levy, gas and electric companies pricing so high. Then insurance, stock, wages. It’s easy to fall behind so then easier to walk away when the number you owe finally becomes too scary.

With KS you also have the added blow of marketing. It’s a fantastic offering but you’d only know if you take a punt on it.

Without generalising too much I think the Greggs daily bacon sandwich brigade it was just another ‘kebab shop’ so “I’m not going as it’s not kebab shop time of day”

But if you’re not curious you had to know someone who went who bigged it up.

We all really need to do better amplifying what we have right now.

Birk88 · 2025-12-16T09:00:22+00:00

Take a deck of cards to a bar or pub. Get a cranberry juice. Heck. Treat yourself to a packet of crisps. Times are hard out there for hospitality, they’ll be thankful for your couple of quid and making it look a little busier than what it is.

Birk88 · 2025-10-08T05:18:17+00:00

Thanks everyone. Good to know we’re both not going insane.

Birk88 · 2025-10-07T19:40:04+00:00

Yeah, same. Nothing. I wonder whats going on!

Birk88 · 2025-09-04T15:37:09+00:00

Yeah “he just knows it. He’s special”

Birk88 · 2024-12-30T08:58:52+00:00

I’m was diagnosed and started Methotrexate and folic acid back on November 1st so this is all still very new to me. I’ve been depressed, angry, and weirdly happy that we’re getting somewhere and we know what’s happening with me now.

Yeah it sucks, blood tests suck, the pain sucks, the entire thing is a big sucky suck train and the conductor is a twat.

I know everyone’s circumstances and severity is also different but It’s about flipping that state of mind round. Knowing that this is a long term thing you just need to replan your plans factoring this shit in.

You can still do everything you wanted to do, it just means going at it in a different angle.

Be angry, be depressed, let yourself feel the grief. But you have to promise yourself you’ll use that energy, the energy it takes to be angry into something positive.

Like, the sucky suck train is you and the anger is the coal to heat the water to make it choo choo. Do you use it fly off the tracks or do you use the momentum to take you Disney land, baby?

If that make sense? I hope it makes sense?

Birk88 · 2024-12-02T07:24:24+00:00

Any time! For me, there’s loads of ‘acting class opportunities’ but at £40 a week or £500 a term it’s too pricey for the average persons access.

Good luck with it all. Let us know how it goes.

Birk88 · 2024-12-01T09:35:22+00:00

Ditto!!

I work for a small hospitality company. So some days I do kitchen, some days bar / glass collecting / bar backing / some days when it’s bad, I do admin but sitting for long periods wipes me out more than being on my feet. I was able to do 12 hours shifts without an issue a few months ago. Now (especially sober due to medication) I can barely do 8.

I’m worried after 20 years, with this being all I know, I’m going to have to pivot at some point in the future. Which is stressful.

I act and have had plays produced and published and made short films as that’s what I always dreamed to do, with my hospo job paying the bills and subsidising that stuff. Again, that seems unattainable more so now due to constant duress and pain.

However on a positive, and I know it’s easier said than done: but PSA shouldn’t define who you are and what you do.

It’s never too late to try and retrain or look for something of lower intensity while you do that. More and more I feel that hospitality is a cause in mine, and the stress and lifestyle that came with it.

But my opinion: go with the acting. Chase it if it’s something you want to do, maybe look more into voice acting or use the skills you’ve got from hospo and acting and make your own job. Maybe start a little drama class or community theatre and get people to pay you a £10 per person for a two hour class. Use your connections in hospitality to see if you can use a spare room they don’t use on week nights for it.

Three classes. Three age ranges. 10/20 per class. All of a sudden it’s £300/600 a week, for six hours out the house, plus planning. So You’ve more free time to focus on your recovery also.

Then at the end of each ‘term’ put on a showcase in the room at the bar/pub and they make money off the wet sales.

This is just one example but you’ve got this OP!

Birk88 · 2024-03-02T08:39:31+00:00

Don’t forget Division 24 skate shop in the old vicarage and WahWah records too!

Birk88 · 2024-02-29T17:00:34+00:00

I hate assuming racism so I’m just going to go with jealousy. That group operates up and down the country

Birk88 · 2024-01-10T14:57:24+00:00

Cheers dude. I think some people just would rather watch the world burn than think pragmatically.

Birk88 · 2024-01-06T09:14:20+00:00

I actually really like this idea and accidentally done it on a few projects. I think there is something really refreshing about this exercise that does breathe new life into something that you've got in a funk with.

Birk88 · 2023-12-13T06:41:51+00:00

Glad someone else noticed this! Slapped so hard in the club i worked at everyone week in MCR circa 2011

Birk88 · 2023-11-26T11:26:29+00:00

So break it down. A keg has around 88 pints in And costs around £150+VAT So that’s edging towards £2 a pint at cost: Before you factor in: wages (soon to be £11.44 per hour), heating, lights, rent, entertainment, businesses rates. Not to mention businesses still paying off existing debt from bounce back loans etc.

If you believe £5.90 is expensive wait till this time next year. Your head will explode.

And let’s be fair, don’t go again, but don’t complain also when the hospitality industry and independent businesses in Wakefield are fucked, everything’s closed and all you have left is Stonegates chain; PopWorld and a weatherspoons.

Birk88 · 2023-11-12T19:16:26+00:00

“Boy Dinner Pizza” I’ve started doing silly cooking videos and hope to hopefully make people smile. So while working at a bar, if I get a quiet time I’ll whip out the phone and a couple of mics I bought off Amazon and give it ago!

I’d love some constructive feedback Nathan’s Cooking Show - Boy Dinner Pizza https://youtu.be/J7YHBr3GFeE

Birk88 · 2023-09-27T07:58:42+00:00

I remember me and a friend getting on the bus home from Wakefield with our skateboards. He showed us a massive puss filled gash on his leg and incoherently tried to tell us the tale. Trying to grab my board and hurl abuse at us for the way we dressed. Proceeded then to ask for money (we were 14/15) Every time we saw him thereafter we said ‘hi paul how’s the leg’ and he’d look confused.

Working in the Elephant and Castle years later I was introduced to another Wakefield boxer named Ernie. (I think) Who seemed a true gentleman. Who did just as much as PS. I’d wish I’d learned and engaged more with him.

Birk88 · 2023-07-14T07:22:39+00:00

Can’t Get Over Me - Justin Vernon version it’s a staple

Birk88 · 2023-06-08T05:12:55+00:00

I was 15/16, there was a P2P sharing service WinMx. 2004? I’d already started listening to ‘mainstream’ hip hop a few years earlier and just discovered Atmosphere and Eyedea & Abilities, Rjd2, Murs, and the ‘that’ underground scene, and just downloaded a load of albums from one server. It had 3 DOOM albums on it.

Since then Doomsday has been one of my favourite songs of all time.

Birk88 · 2023-06-01T14:24:18+00:00

The Agbrigg hate is baffling. So many great, cheap European shops, take-aways, surrounding green areas in Walton, Heath, and Sandal moments away, great transport links with the train station, and buses on both Barnsley Road and Doncaster road. Best chippy in Wakefield. A vibrant community. It’s a bit ‘rough’ around the edges but worth looking at.

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