| We are proud to present the latest installment of the new book by ex-SAS
hardman turned burger vendor, Andy McNobb... Burger Two Zero - Episode 3
Company...........at ease!
23:00 hours, and the last customer has
finally left, wandering off to do whatever it is that these civilians do with their lives.
It's at times like this that I sometimes almost envy those doctors and teachers and the
like out there. Sometimes makes me wish I'd taken the easy option too.
When you're a soldier you don't stop
being a soldier after lights out. It's the same when you're a burger vendor. The shop may
be closed, the tables cleared, the fat solidified, but I'm still a burger vendor. I'm a
burger vendor 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Except for Sundays. And Christmas Day and
Boxing Day.
Committment to this lark demands a
resolve like iron and a heart as hard as an overdone quarter-pounder. After I left the SAS
I didn't just swan straight into a burger bar like this one. People just see the glamorous
side - the tablecloths and gherkins. It wasn't always like this. Had to work my way up.
Nine months as a catering cadet delivering sandwiches round a Nottingham business park.
Then the six long years running a hot dog stand on an industrial estate outside Retford.
Still the memories haunt me.
Night after endless night in that tiny
van, the smell of boiled onions sharp in my nostrils, the haze of vapourised grease heavy
in the air.......the faces looming from the darkness, the wind, the rain, the ketchup.
God, the ketchup..........
Stains like that don't fade. Not even by
scrubbing with an undiluted splash of that heavy-duty catering detergent I get on the
cheap from Les at Makro. Believe me, I've tried.
Next Week - CRASH AND CARRY!!
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