Paul's Corner

I am sad for I know no song
I am sad for I am a man who has lost his music
My life is empty where once it was vibrant
Rythym lies beneath the silence
Ready to soar to its natural note
But remains voiceless
For I know no song

I am a garden without a rose
A river without water
A night without stars
I am barren
I am songless

A man should never be thus
For it is the music in ones heart
That beats out the metre to ones journey
It is the timbre and pitch that lends one
Strength and softness
It is the structure and depth that gives one
Passion and desire
It is the silence between the notes
That brings one to know the soul
And in knowing the soul
One sings
With clarity
With freedom
With abandonment
With truth
And with a knowing that only comes
When one reclaims his music

The following is a PR blurb my management sent out to various organisations. I thought I would post it here just in case any one here would be interested or able to sponsor my walk in support of cancer research and treatments.

The way I look at it is if each person who watched Mercurio's Menu here in Australia donated or sponsored me to the tune of one dollar each then we would have raised almost half a million dollars!! Easy hey and not a lot of money for each person!

Any way if you can help then would would be gratefule and appreciative and if you cant then no stress and probs I will still love ya!

Australian Actor, TV & Film Star Paul Mercurio joins Olivia Newton John in a million steps
in the fight against cancer.
Paul will join Olivia’s team for The Great Walk to Beijing on Stage 6, the final steps.
Walking a total of 22km’s over 2 days, the team will face warm temperatures and steep
mountains as they make their way to ‘The Great Wall – entrance to Beijing’.
Paul will be in great company with famous faces from Australia and around the world,
including:
• Olivia Newton John
• Sir Cliff Richard OBE - Indisputably Britain’s all-time greatest hit-maker!
• Monique Wright – Sunrise
• Rachel Gordon – Home & Away
• Adam Sutton – Cowboy & Author
• Kimberley Busteed – Miss Universe Australia 2007
• Melinda Schneider – Country Singer
• Murray Bingham – Model
• Nicky Buckley – Model & Presenter
• James Reyne – Singer / Songwriter
The 21 day trek will commence on April 7, 2008 with the final stage on 28 -29 April. The
funds raised will go straight to the Olivia Newton John Cancer Centre in Melbourne.
To sponsor Paul and to learn more about the Great Walk to Beijing please go to
www.greatwalktobeijing.com. Sponsorship costs as a little as $1.

To sponsor me follow the link below:

https://www.greatwalktobeijing.com/store/walker/item/785/7287/paul-mercurio.html

www.mercuriosmenu.com

I have been slack not to post the website sooner but oppositie to being slack I have been extremely busy and also tired so when I did have a moment I used it to act like a zombie! Between shooting the episodes I have also been travelling to New Zealand to to be a judge on Dancing with the Stars -

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/tvone_minisite_index_skin/tvone_dancing_with_the_stars_group

I am sure you guys have been keeping up with it all - in fact the rare occassion I have checked into the corner I have seen an article posted about something I have done that I had no idea was out and about so thanks!

Back to Mercurio's Menu, I am very pleased and excited to say we have been rating very well indeed! Last week we won our timeslot in Sydney and helped the news to a win. This week we won in Perth and Melbourtne and helped the news to a win! Which makes me wonder what Queensland are doing??!??!? We screen at 5.30 Sat in Vic and 5.30 Sun in Perth and NSW and have been winning our ratings time slot - not every week but we have only been going for 3 weeks - Queensland however have put us on at 2.45 friday afternoon!!!! Thats is around the time mums are getting kids from school and everyone else is at work or school or uni!!!! What on earth are they thinking up there at channel 7 in Queensland. Any one half good at their job would see the figures from Syd. Melbourne and Perth and realise that they are wasting the opportunity for this show to A. attract a large audience (no one is home) and B. help bring the viewers in for their nightly news braodcast.

Hopefully they are just doing a quiet run to build an audience base and then plan to launch it at a later date at a more appropriate time and really bring in the audience. That could be a smart move, I guess I will have to wait and see?

Three more episodes to shoot and then...... who knows.......I dont.

Hairspray!

No not the stuff in the can but the film! We - the family - watched it for the second time last night and it just lifts the spirits, makes you smile, brings a tear to the eye and makes you want to sing, dance and smile like crazy!

Thank god, the universe and all that is for movies like this.

that it is always lurking, ready to jump out, rear it's ugly reality and knock you down again. Yes they are memories, yes it is past but the ripple effect of that past is as real today as the abuse was yesterday. It comes in waves washing up on your shore when you least expect or want it.

On top of that it is the indirect flow on, the relationships that ebb and flow on the outer ripples that in time often hurt the most, which continue time and time again to hurt with not much of an end in sight no matter how much work is done.

There is no answer to the tide of experience, the bad often chafes the good relieves it for a moment - it is just that sometimes those moments are'nt long enough are they?

And sadly there are those that are ignorant because that is the easiest for them to be, they give no thought, they ride the ripples thoughtless and chafe the worst for it.

lazy thoughtless bastards I would say but they are living a life in fear and so, I am so very sorry for them. But I leave it to them to help themselves or not , I care not - in truth I care but can do nothing for it is for them to to come to see the pain they cause and then decide what to do about it.

I will help those who love and respect themselves and whom I love and whom I am loved by.

lI reckon it is a good time to reflect on that which we are grateful for over the year past. Dont reflect on the stuff that we didnt want or didnt like, instead reflect an that which we were lucky to have in our life, the stuff that made our day worth while, that helped us focus on the longer picture to our daily health and wellbeing. Let us rejoice in those thngs and those moments that allowed us to be us and gave us strength to ever continue the move forward in our lives.

Praise be the lord I may say but I personally dont believe in that phrase - instead praise be they that have commiited to bettering themselves over the last year and may they continue. Praise be they who made a difference, praise be they who gave it a go, praise be they that gave this year their best and may the year ahead give them strength and courage to continue on their journey.

What is it that you are grateful for this year.

For me it is the lessons learnt, the opportunities given, the challenges overcome, the challenges ongoing, the fact that I have made the changes even though they were hard. I am grateful to my wife who loves me but doesnt always like me and visa versa there by we challenge each other to continue to grow and the love of my children which also challenges me because I have to learn the lesson I most wish I didnt have too and that is to let go. Such is life.

A new year is coming and with it all the uncertainty that the unkown carries. I have weathered the storm many times over and have never known how I can, do or continue to. But ultimatlely I trust in the universe even though it may not know what it is doing. It is like when I go surfing and I catch a big wave ( or even a small one) at some point you get dumped and you get pumelled by the wave and all you can do is go with it, let it take you and pummel you until it gives up and lets you go at which point you raise to the surface gagging for air grateful to be alive some what frightened by the ordeal and then paddle out to catch another wave regardless. That is life in a nutshell and I am grateful that I can have a surf.

Thank you for the journey and thank you for the lessons - I am grateful for the life I have and the friends I have here.

What are you grateful for this year?

Yep, I have been away shooting my new food show - which I cannot say much about at this stage but I will say it is called Mercurio's Menu and I am shooting 13 episodes due to go to air from Feb 2008! It has been a while since I have been out on the road shooting and it was a bit of a shock and challenge to get back into day in day out shooting mode. I was also away doing a charity event in Perth which was great as I got to stay with my Mum and see my Brother, his partner and two kids - oh and new dog!

It is funny that there was a period of time this year where over a five month period I only had seven days paid work and yet I also hosted about 5 charity events where I donate my time. There is a certain irony in that that I find amusing - the panick of wondering if I will lose my house balanced out by the fact that I am helping those in more need than myself. Keeps your feet on the ground and life inperspective doesnt it?

As always the life lesson that I find to be my continuing and constant travelling companion is to choose happiness and that happiness comes from within.

Thank you to everyone that sent Happy Anniversary thoughts and wishes! I almost cant believe it - 20 years! I dont feel that old but the truth is Andrea and I now have a daughter that is 18 and finished her high school career, our other one is starting her last two years of highscool and th eyoungest is about to start her high school career and is therfore done with primary school!!! The other truth is Andrea and I still Love each other and look forward to the next 20 years.

Things change, no point resisting that, just embrace it, make the best of it and enjoy the ride - or I should say choose to enjoy it rather than choosing not to.

For now I choose to go and do some house work!

Talk is cheap, solutions are priceless!

I am really disappointed.... but maybe that says a lot about me. I always thought that you can work with friends and work colleagues can be friends, business partners can be honest enough in their dealings to not hide behind being mates but then stab you in the back or front or side when it suits them. I am disappointed in you! Your lack of communication, your childish sulks and your unfortunate misguided sense of pride has not only hurt me but also irrepairably you and your business. I dont really understand as I gave you everything I could, my creative vulnerableness, my trust, my loyalty and my neck and it now seems you repay that by not a word. I have been cut off and therefore everything I gave to you has become cheap, everything we created amounts to nothing because you care more about your pride, your standing, your ego and your place in the world than our friendship and our successful creative partnership. I guess what irks me is you told me stories of how you discommunicate those who do you wrong and now I am included. I only did you right and even let things that were not to my best interest slip so that we may creatively achieve and sadly at the crunch it would seem you would blame me for what truthfully is your failure. Read that again and let it sink in - you have failed and you have failed me and you have failed you and that is what makes me angry the most, that you would seek to find some one else to blame for your failure and your mistakes. You would blame me for sticking by you for how long....? You have said we are very alike - and we are, and I am grateful for the relationship and the experience we have had together and am deeply saddened that more has not been forthcoming but I have also learnt that where we are alike is not the part of me I wish to invite within to become a permanent fixture of who I am. I do not wish to become you (a possibility that I will need to be aware of) and although there is much of you that I admire I cannot respect you, for you elevate yourself above others (me) and justify your pride and your ego as talent and those that doubt that, question that (as I dared) and rufute that are struck off from once we were friends.

That leaves me feeling a little used and saddened how it leaves you I am sure you wont say but from the time we spent together I know the affect it takes on you and I dont get why you do it to yourself - pride? Is it worth it???

After trying to make it happen for you and I for so long I am now working at looking after me and and my family (which you befriended) and not one word from you - friend? I guess not and perhaps never because I dont know how a real friend does that. I have been honest, transparent and loyal all the way and you have played me.

Somehow I need to take a leaf from your book and not give a damn.

I gave evidence in this trial several weeks ago and have been awaiting the outcome...

The Daily Telegraph

By Angela Kamper

September 17, 2007 02:25pm

BRUCE Burrell has been found guilty of murdering eastern suburbs widow Dorothy Davis.

The verdict comes more than 12-years since the wealthy 74-year-old disappeared when she left her Lurline Bay home. Her body has never been found.

Burrell 54, looked up to the ceiling as the decision was handed down adjusting his tie as Ms Davis's daughter Maree Dawes sat in the court gallery and cried silently with relief.

"No verdict can ever give us the peace that we so desperately crave," Ms Dawes said outside court.

"It will only be when we bring her home and bury her with the dignity she deserves."

Burrell had borrowed $100,000 from Ms Davis for a home loan and killed her after she asked for the money to be returned.

He was convicted of killing Ms Davis on or about May 30, 1995.

Mobile telephone records show that he had visited his Southern Higlands property at Bungonia the day she went missing.

Police searched the property and surrounding area several times but her body was never found.

Burrell will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.

I was in the middle of doing a live radio interview when the announcer apologised to me saying we had to go to some breaking news and then announced that this bloke had been found guilty. I was happy, relieved and saddened - not for him as such although I do feel sad he has made the choices he has - he is a monster and deserves all the punishment he gets. I feel for Dot's family as it has taken 12 years to get some kind of closure and whilst it is a good outcome nothing will ever bring Dot back or change the pain of the past.

BTW - this bloke is already serving time after being found guilty for the abduction and murder of another lady - a crime he commited after commiting the one he has just been convicted of!