The marshal of where?; spo; and Polish bus drivers

During my trip to Halifax last week I met the Marshal to the Baron de Musard: whew!

The Marshal's real name is Robert C Johnson and he runs the second hand bookshop in the Piece Hall Halifax! A chirpy Scot with a definite Scottish accent who's lived in Yorkshire for 33 years!

I asked him what he does as Marshal and was told that he's the official organiser of the Baron's weddings, christenings and funerals and such. He gets paid three bottles of Claret a year for his pains.

Hmm, impressive I thought. So I asked him how many such events he's organised so far and he said, with a grin, none!

Ah well, he must have a job before too long, surely?!

Good to meet the chap and his 37,000 books. At least he was able to sell me a copy of Gerald Durrell's My family and other animaals for my sister who's been looking for a copy for months: £2 it cost me.

Well done! You can see Robert on the internet here: http://www.piecehall.info/ click on the link to the bookshop, funnily enough! You can find a brief history of the Piece Hall there too, starting with:

The Piece Hall was opened on 1st January 1779.  It was built as a place for handloom weavers to sell their pieces of cloth, hence the name,  and was a replacement for an earlier, smaller, Cloth Hall.

Anyone know what spo is? I haven't had any for years but I bought the ingredient last week for it and may well have some on the go before too long. Answers on a postcard or through the comment facility here!!!

All fascinating stuff isn't it?

Then there's our fantastic bus drivers. A Polish young chap told me that he's impressed by our bus drivers: they are thanked by their passengers and they are friendly and helpful. In complete contrast, he says, to the Polish bus drivers in Poland who are miserable and grisly ... unless you know different, of course; as I wouldn't like to malign anyone on the basis of a sample of the story from one!

DW