The world is closed today
They said the world was closed today
So I went to have a look, I found it with the shutters down
And the phone was off the hook.
So I stood there for a little while
But no one was around,
Then silence came and startled me
With the most alarming sound.
I asked him where the others were
And why the streets were bare,
He whispered life had run away
While death was playing there.
Oh no I said it can't be true For life is not afraid,
But no one ever goes he said Where death has ever played. I understood and walked away
As hope was standing there, With courage in her afterglow
And the sunlight in her hair. She said go home to those you love
This is no place to be,
For if we walk these streets today
Then no one shall be free.
She threw her light to lead the way
And showed me where to go, The very road that life had gone
Where the future flowers grow.
Then death showed me another way
But I didn't want to look,
So I stumbled home in time for tea
And I read another book. It was called The World Is Closed Today
And the streets we shouldn't roam,
The first line said just please be safe
And the ending "stay at home".
“Everyone is different and not to compare themselves to anyone else.”
If you think the news of a professional trainer sitting on a dead horse is bad, just wait until you hear about what I just saw. Forget trainer Gordon Elliott being pictured astride the body of one of his deceased horses, there are TV channels showing live footage of men on horses that are, wait for this, still alive!
Honestly. Loads of them. Blokes with whips racing the poor beasts round and round a big field as fast as they can gallop. For money!
Mark my words. It’s only a matter of time before one of these animals gets hurt.
Anyway, that’s enough on the subject. If there’s one thing I’ve learned when writing this column it’s to stay clear of animals if you want to avoid controversy.
I once suggested that police shooting a dangerous dog might not have been such a bad thing and was fielding Twitter abuse from animal lovers for the next month. Ironically, you can still buy chairs made out of horse hide (damn, I couldn’t resist continuing the theme).
Obviously there’s a world of difference to sitting on a dead horse and sitting on a chair made from a dead horse, but just in case you find yourself on one of these horse hide chairs, don’t smile for the camera.
Gordon Elliott has apologised profusely for sitting on his dead horse, but explained the whole situation may well have been taken out of context.
Rather than being what could, for all the world look like a complete Mickey take, was in his eyes just an unfortunate chain of events that ended up on camera.
He said “I was standing over the horse waiting to help with the removal of the body, in the course of which, to my memory I received a call and, without thinking, I sat down to take it.
“Hearing a shout from one of my team, I gestured to wait until I was finished.”
And that gesture? The universal big grin and flicking the ‘peace’ sign, of course. Seems plausible to me.
One can only hope that shout from one of his team wasn’t: “Oi Gordon, I don’t care who that call is from, you shouldn’t be sitting on a dead horse.”
Now that would be ironic. When Mr Elliott appears before the horse racing authorities he will need to convince them that the dignity of horses is taken as seriously in life as it is in death. If he fails to do so, he may well find himself in a situation as sticky as, well, a boiled horse hoof.
A cowboy builder with no experience of the construction trade has been jailed for more than two years after duping customers out of almost £40,000.
Anthony James Gray, 57, from Topaz Close in Hartlepool, defrauded a collective £39,600 from victims over a two years.
Gray, who traded as Cathedral Home Improvements Ltd, agree to a loft conversion at a customer’s Wheatley Hill home within her £8,000 budget.
He failed to provide a full contract and the woman became reluctant to make furtherpaymentsduetothetardy nature of the work.
An invoice had a different company name on it, with Gray saying he was in the process of changing it, but it was found to be his previous employer, who had sacked him.
A Durham County Council buildinginspectorconfirmed no application was made for building regulations, nor had an initial notice been submitted by an approved inspector, deemingthework“unsatisfactory”.
The conversion was restarted and the victim had to seek a loan for the work.
A couple in Sherburn Village hired Gray to install sunroom and despite an agreed price of £12,000 and foundations being laid, Gray failed to return, saying he was unwell.
The work was completed by a third party for a further £8,000, with the couple losing £7,200.
The council’s Trading
Standards Team investigated and Gray admitted holding no building qualifications and “wasn’t very good at running a company”.
It was found he misrepresented his accreditation by third party organisations, such as Secured by Design.
Gray was jailed for 27 months at Durham Crown Court after admitting one count of fraudulent trading and four counts of fraud, with three further offences of fraud taken into consideration.
In mitigation, counsel for Gray said there was no similar offending and his activities were initially legitimate.
Owen Cleugh, the council’s public protection manager, said: “Gray’s actions have caused a lot of distress to his victims, who believed they were going to have work carried out on their homes to a safeandsatisfactorystandard.
“He knew he did not have the required skills or expertise to complete the home improvements, yet still chose to accept payment for them.”