Paul Mercurio Online

Thought I best post something early before I open the champagne and get things going.

Wishing everyone who drops by here a very happy, prosperous, healthy, harmonious, joyful and positive year ahead.

I have decided this year end beginning that I will for the first time ever make a new year resolution, however as I will not commence that resolution until after my Mum goes home (yes she has been here visiting since before Xmas) and it does include drinking less I will not be drinking less while Mum is here as a nice glass of wine or two with Mum is a pleasure not to be messed with.

So my New Year resolution will be posted on the 6th of Jan.

I hope all your wishes come true in 2012!

It’s crazy, possibly a trap, certainly a time consumer! Social media is eating up a lot of what used to be spare time and all in the name of making things quicker, easier, more immediate, intimate, short time accessible…..I am sure there is a perfectly good bit of jargon for what I am trying to say but I haven’t got it at the tip of my typing fingers.

Once upon a time starting a blog was something pretty unique, brave, different and cutting edge. Who would have thought sharing your thoughts out there in the great wide web would capture the attention of people all over the world from different countries, backgrounds and belief systems (not to mention the media and potential employers/sponsors).

I started blogging in 2000 which from what I understand was in the early days of blogging. Just a side note – webloging kind of came about in the early 90′s when someone put their personal journal out there for all to see then in 1999 the word “Blog” was used and thus blogging was born. So I got into blogging in 2000 which is pretty early on in the scheme of it and it was all thanks to Cat (thanks Cat!!) I didn’t know about, couldn’t set it up, had no idea how it worked or even why I might want to do it but I got into it. My driving force was so that people who thought they knew me could actually get to know the real me and not the Film TV personality. I blogged a lot and they are all still out there on the net for people to read through if they have the courage, strength and time as Natalie recently has!! Occasionally I will click randomly on the archives and have a read – it is certainly a fascinating look into where, why, who, what and when I was as well as the conversations and replies that flew back and forth between us.

I blogged a lot and frequently, my wife would often ask me what I was doing and why and thought I perhaps spent too much time doing it. My brother couldn’t work out why I – a person in the public who had to contend with that would then go and put myself in the public in a much more intimate and personal way. My sister quietly found my site and would read the posts but never post herself. Eventually my wife would read my posts and the responses and generally enjoy them – not always – they would often spark discussion between us and sometimes argument but all healthy really. I now know a lot of people whom I know well read my blog but never actually tell me they do. I also know that when I have gone for interviews for jobs, sponsorship opportunities and actual interviews for radio/newspapers etc the interviewer has seen my blogs and thus is armed with information to use at their discretion.

That has been the scariest part of blogging actually. That people I don’t know can take information I have freely put out there and use it for or against me. That is why my blogging over the years has decreased, sadly a small number of people were reading and using the info against me. That sounds harsh in fact let me put it a better way – when I realised certain people were reading my blog I then realised the potential for misunderstanding and how that could damage me and my brand. In the early days I could be brazenly honest because for one there was not so much at stake as there seems to be now and not a lot of people knew about or followed blogs so those that did were fellow travelers. Of course this is not only a problem for me nor only for celebrities but for everyone indulging in this brave new world. What once was a wonderful place for true freedom of expression has become a slightly subdued environment where one can express themselves with some caution lest they get, sued, fired or beaten up. Of course I could have changed my name (still could) but what is the point of expressing oneself behind a false name???

I have often felt sad about this change as I have felt less able to express the me I still am, the free and open bloke I was when I began blogging and the me that sits here today with more of a need to do so then ever. I am sorry if I have disappointed people as I withdrew from this world – how ever I console myself with the idea that everything has it’s time, whilst I am not giving it up it has changed due to the nature of social media and the way it makes the world go round – but we did have a good time back in the old days didn’t we?

And so I get back to the point of this post – Social Media. This blog has suffered from it even as it is a part of it. I now have three facebook accounts, a Twitter account (thanks to Kelly – 337 friends now!!) and of course this site. I have several domain names registered which one day I will activate and no doubt need to spend time writing on and hopefully answering questions/requests etc

And so it came to Xmas and it came to the dilemma…..where do I post my Xmas wishes? The answer of course is on every site although I didn’t do that as I felt silly saying the same thing on every site knowing that there are people who follow me on different sites and would see the same message and then if I posted different messages on each site that would take a lot more time and what if one site message was happier than the other???? Damn Social Media!!!!!

Each social media site I have has a different audience and serves a different function which seems crazy as I type this. It is like we are pulling ourselves apart and presenting each part to a succinct section of the community and along the way lessening our ability to truly communicate. As we reach for a broader audience are we dumbing down who we are and therefore our message? Or am I thinking too much, am I not getting what it is all about, am I still coming to terms with the new wave of Social Media ?

I will have to get back to you on that one as it’s time to tweet to my 337 followers that my cup of tea is ready and ask what biscuit I should have with it and whilst I have my cup of tea and biscuit I will check my 3 facebook accounts, my hotmail and email accounts, twitter and peep on my phone and then after all that have a chat to my wife – if I can remember how.

Oh…..and Happy Belated Christmas – I raise my glass and toast to you all and thank you for being on this journey with me.

Cheers

Okay – I felt the time was right to get that piece of pork shoulder out of the freezer and face my fears and cook this sucker to perfection. I carefully and gently defrosted it, washed it and then dried it. I lovingly anointed it with extra virgin olive oil and the best seas salt money could buy. I again laid it upon a bed of meticulously hand cut onion and fennel of the freshest quality and then surrounded it by baby organic carrots and perfectly cut pieces of dutch cream potatoes. It all went into a pre heated oven at 180 degrees. I shut the oven door feeling good about the prep and feeling really good about the outcome – never has a piece of pork been so lovingly cared for!

I kept an eye on it; I wasn’t going to stuff this one up. After 35 minutes I checked the temperature with my newly purchased digital thermometer bought expressly for this one important occasion it read 65 degrees – medium! I took the pork out and set it on a plate to rest. Of course the crackling wasn’t done due to the low temp and the amount of time in the oven so I carefully removed that and placed it under the grill to crisp up. I admit this is not ideal however my focus was on the meat more so than the crackle. I left the veggies to cook a little longer, dare I say it – to cook to perfection which they did – golden brown and caramelised, the onion and fennel mixture soft and luscious.

Having rested the pork I took my favourite and most sharp Japanese knife from its case and respectfully carved the pork like a Samurai warrior carving through a sworn enemy. Steam rose up from the pork ahhhh the sweet smell of success!!

As expected the pork skin refused to crackle up completely so I dissected the crispiest sections from the rest and gave the choice sections to my beautiful wife. Pork and veggies draped lazily over the onion and fennel, steamed beans sitting politely to the side, crackling proudly sitting atop the pork, glass of red wine…..the stage was set for my triumphant return as roast pork master.

My wife rosy and warm in the glow of such a fine meal lifted the crackle to her mouth took a bite, looked me in the eye and then spat it out exclaiming “it tastes like fish”. I am afraid I agreed with her, the crackle did indeed taste like fish or rather it had an odd fishy character or even a linseed oily kind of character that was at once confusing and disturbing. In fact whilst I was handling the crackling I noted with mounting disbelief and an edge of horror my fingers came away with a fishy kind of smell!! I decided not to worry but ignore it as everything would be fine – it wasn’t!
Cutting into the pork one knew immediately all was not well. It was tough, the meat was tight not at all relaxed and it too had a rather strange flavour to it. My wife took two bites, working hard to try and break it down enough so that she could swallow it without choking and then threw in the towel. I gave it a little more of an opportunity to redeem itself hoping that somehow it would become soft, juicy , tender and taste like pork but alas it refused as it also refused my teeth and thus I too threw in the towel and threw the pork in the bin!

The veggies were absolutely terrific.

So the saga of the free range organic point has at last come to its final resting place. I declare that the fault lay not with me – for I am an excellently average home cook – indeed the fault lay with the pork itself. I wonder at the process of its slaughter and think possibly there is something happening to cause the meat to seize and the adrenalin to run rampant and therefore taint the meat? I am reminded that I have also purchased fresh pork sausages from this same market stall, same pig breeder and after cooking them my wife and I had several bites before they too went in the bin.

There is the slightest possibility that my wife and I both share an equally unusual affliction to this particular pig but I think that is grasping at fresh hay. Unfortunately and I hate to say it I think that this pork stoinks!