Celebrating 25 years of the “Natural World”, BBC 2’s splendid natural history series was back tonight with an in depth look at the Mountain Gorilla’s of Rwanda, specifically a silverback called Titus.

Watching it on a whim I was soon drawn into this fascinating world of the Gorilla and found myself quite affected by the story told. With my background in Zoology I have always been aware of the mountain Gorilla’s, of Diana Fossey and her plight and was therefore intrigued when I found out that the leading man of tonight’s show was a Gorilla born under the watchful eye of Diane Fossey and her team. Having an in depth history of Titus’s background, where he was born, how he survived, how he overcame the largest of obstacles to become the longest running King Silverback in our records was quite astounding.

Titus sits amongst the vegetation

Born to Flossey, Titus found himself alone at a young age after the group was overtaken by a rogue male who killed Titus’s baby sister. With an unnerving display of humanitarian characteristics his mother and several other females fled the group leaving Titus abandoned and alone with a group of males, the leader being the murderer of his sister. For the next few years the male troupe remained intact, showing a homosexual behaviour never before seen within Gorilla’s, until, after the death of a silverback from another group, a number of females appeared on the scene. Beester, the leader of the Titus’s group, killed two of the new female’s babies and ran the rest of the males out of town but yet again in another unknown behavioural characteristic allowed his good friend Titus to remain behind. In the following years Titus gained in strength and allegiance, siring his first child unbeknown to Beester at the tender age of eleven.

But it was Titus’s character that stood out. He’d been abandoned, he’d survived against all odds, the murderer and leader of a male troupe had allowed him to survive and then, in another bizarre twist Titus somehow managed a coo to take over the troupe without spilling any bloodshed. This was an outstanding character.

Natural World wrapped up with another shock. As Titus took his troupe to the summit of their mountain territory his strange friendship with another silverback, Kuryama, amidst the troupe (allowing another fully grown silverback within a group is in itself extremely rare) was broken as the other male took, through non aggressive terms, most of the group back down the mountain leaving Titus with only a few of his loyalist supporters. But it was then revealed that Kuryama, had in fact been confirmed through DNA sampling, as Titus’s first ever child. Titus himself took his remaining group down the other side of the mountain into Congo and later emerged with a newly born baby in tow, his siring days weren’t over yet.

 Some of Titus's offspring including overthrower Kuryama

But it was the intensity of this 40minute show that really struck me. Here were living, breathing, intelligent beings. A mother fled a group after her baby was murdered, a father allowed his son to remain in his troupe up until the point where he himself was overthrown. Why are we allowing these creatures to be murdered and poached. They are our closest living relatives, they are intelligent, and yet we are increasingly making them extinct. At one point in time they ascended into the mountains and we took our first steps towards humanity. It could have easily been the other way around, one small step the other way and the roles could be reversed. Natural World should be watched, pondered upon and then your feelings acted on.

Affected? You can easily help.....

I’m feeling great today. I’ve had a wonderful weekend in Bournemouth watching Sigur Ross, I’ve been at ITV for the past two weeks and this morning, and Christine arrives on Thursday. Knowing Christine she’ll have a high packed itinerary of things she’d like to do so we’ll be busy, especially with going to Paris. On the other hand I’ll be totally broke by the end of it all but that’s life. I’m sure the credit card in my already bulging wallet will help take the strain. 

Reading National Geographic today (which my sister very kindly bought me a subscription to last year) and I came across this stunning picture. Isn’t it just inspiring? That such a huge, wonderful and docile creature can be hunted to near extinction yet here, it simply circles with intrigue and interest is surely amazing. 

From National Geographic

I must admit that every time I now see a picture with a diver in, or go near any kind of beach I start to become green with envy. Diving’s a funny thing, it really gets in your blood and now I’ve been once I just can’t wait to go again.

It was with interest that I picked up a copy of the television circular “Broadcast” and read a very interesting couple of articles. One was about the producer of Spring/Autumn watch, the other about a team of experts and presenters going out to film the BBC’s newest Earth Epic – Oceans. It made me realise just how comfortable I’d become and that I needed to step up my game. The articles were simply brilliant, incredible stories about incredible people doing incredible TV. Here I am, sitting quite happily at “This Morning” (not that there’s anything at all wrong with that) and all around me people are making groundbreaking television, television that is the reason that I wanted to join this career path. Taking things for granted is a funny thing, no matter how amazing something may be, how much we are blown away by its greatness initially, eventually, with time it fades. I love working on This Morning, it’s a great show with great people but falling into place has made me, I must admit, become comfortable with the way things are when really I shouldn’t be. I’m a freelancer and I’m currently in an area that I want to move on from. I know we should take baby steps but we should always remember to keep the dream alive and keep on pushing.

Ellen – wonder woman, great friend, ambitious professional, liar? Strictly speaking its not lying as she simply didn’t tell me, or any of our friendship group about a recent jaunt she took to Iceland with an ex boyfriend. I knew she was still seeing him on a kind of intermittent, when she needed the touch of a man, sort of way but I, nor anyone else had realised that it was perhaps developing into something much more again. Of course, this whole thing wouldn’t be of any significance at all if the ex was a well loved and respected one, but he isn’t, he treated Ellen like dirt and though she too can have a fiery temper when pushed, on at least one occasion she got hit. But it got me thinking about why she didn’t tell me. Is it because she’d think I’d judge her, and if so, where is the line between judging and caring? 

At the remarks that other friends have made to her since finding out I can sure see why she chose not to initially tell anyone, but surely she did this because she, in her heart, knew that we wouldn’t approve. But of course, it is impossible to tell what goes on behind closed doors and you only hear “he’s done this to me”, “he’s horrible”, “he hit”, you don’t hear the good things, the rosy times, those extra special occasions. But how can you make sure you don’t overstep the caring friend mark into the “I’m judging you, what you’re doing is wrong” area. We are still trying to be friends, to reassure, to comfort but perhaps saying what is really on your mind simply closes the lines of communication for future times and before you know it your best friend is having trips to Iceland that you don’t even know about and lying about where she’s been and what she’s done! It’s a difficult situation, a grey area and I don’t know about you, but when it comes to me, no one is actually ever good enough for my best friends which always makes it that much harder when trying to have unbiased intimate discussions.

Snow, In London, on October 28th?!

Sometimes in life we dream of many things, never supposing they’ll come true, happy to day dream, happy to think of a better or different life. We rarely actually believe these things will actually come through to fruition and sometimes when our lives actually take the desired direction it is a fear blind panic that starts to overcome us, perhaps because our dreams are just that – dreams. They are something we want so badly, something that we strive towards as a goal, that when they start to become true the fear of failure becomes horrendously unbearable. 

It is with this feeling that my dream of running the London marathon has taken a dramatic turn of events. Now get me wrong, this isn’t a huge dream to me, it is just something that I’ve always considered that I wanted and thought I should do. To achieve running a marathon is, in my mind, to achieve a great sporting victory and though I have applied on several occasions I’ve never got in and to this day never actually dreamt that I would. But oh yes, you’ve guessed it, before I went off to the sunny climes of the Red Sea shores I got my confirmation that indeed I was in for 26^th April 2009, 26.2miles of London running! Argh! 

I have a large and sufficient time period in which to train in but it simply seems so immense to me. I suppose I should just get on with it and do the best I can but I have a strange mixture of fear and exhilaration at the news. There is a fantastic training 13week schedule in Marathon Magazine which I will be starting on Mon (I hoped to start this week but large quantities of Shisha smoking seem to be repeating on me in the form of an annoying tickling cough) and other than that all I can do is cross my fingers, hope for the best, and train as well as I can. What on earth have I got myself into!? 

I have also decided to start a new blog featuring Television shows and news simply because I felt that the odd opinion here and there in “Life of the Hermitage” didn’t really work. In “Hermitage TV” I can at least concentrate on a specific subject and update as necessary. Unfortunately I had to move to blogspot due to the lack of html elements here at Bravenet, but I will in no way be leaving this little blog to blow in the wind! Rather, I’ll have to start updating with all the pain of training for a ridiculously long run!

10 days in the Egyptian air, slumbering on beachside pillows, being gently glowed by warm Red Sea breeze and entering the bewilderingly strange and alien world of the deep ocean depths has certainly had what one could call an ideal effect. It hasn’t really been until I’ve returned home that I realise just how good a time it was, how filled it was with diving and then relaxing in the evenings, puffing like Alice’s caterpillar on the Shisha and enjoying simple fresh foods whilst nestled amongst Egyptian pillows, lanterns and the multitude of cats that prowled eagerly around the restaurants. Returning to the quickly changed seasons of Britain has given me the shock of my life and though Christmas is not nearly upon us seeing the commercial led adverts with their trite little jingles has already started to irritate. Its October and already we’re being pushed to buy a new sofa, buy in the kids presents, get a new kitchen just in time for the turkey! Oh how the Western world has much to learn of the relaxation and in-obtrusive ways of developing countries. 

This week is to be busy. In addition to regaining the jumble of my gardening work there are several other tasks that must be undertook. With the parents arriving next Friday followed by Christine in a month’s time, the half painted staircase, the annoyingly unfinished kitchen floor, and the rucked up, waiting for a new hall carpet job still all have to be finished. Toby is finally behaving himself when it comes to matters of nature’s call so at least the house is smelling altogether much fresher than before but there is still much to do in what seems very little time. Get my act together now and it’ll be fine, leave it much later and I’ll need to grow more arms and hands to deal with the increasing chores that will glooming over me. In addition to this whilst I have some free(ish) time I sincerely need to work on the book, there is no point at all having a half finished novel lying dustily around in your computer files and only dusting it off sporadically to take a look. I need to sit down, do some serious work and bash out the remainder of the story. If I can manage 2-3 hours a day this coming week then I’ll be happy, but I have walls to paint and gloss, driving lessons and PADI exams to take, a floor to lay, a cat to take to the vets and once my list gets started I doubt it’ll ever finish!

Making a very exciting and welcome return to our screen’s Heroes: Season 3, commences this week with much anticipation. Having my usual little patience for anything that involves waiting for much loved TV shows I quickly hopped onto the NBC website to see the double season preview and it didn’t disappoint. As a committed sci-fi fan for as long as I can remember I was immediately hooked to Heroes, not only because of the fantasy nature that it was portraying but to the incredible personal stories that it evolved. More than usual screen heroes, sci-fi villains, and fantasy character’s are purely that, science fictional beings. They have amazing powers, do incredible things but lack a certain personal and real life depth to them. Throwing this out of the window Heroes developed real human beings, people who were living ordinary and every day lives when suddenly these powers were thrust upon them, often with detrimental and unusual outcomes. Claire Bennet, the high school cheerleader, found herself able to heal but fell victim to being the centre of a world ending saga, Syla became overcome with the lust to grow and learn, leading him on the dangerous path to become a psychopathic murderer and Nikki Sanders struggled more and more to overthrow her inner demon Jessica. There were more to our heroes than just people with powers, they had lives, jobs, struggles….and the gripping thing, they were all caught in an integrated and unbelievably complicated web. 

Heroes also managed magnificently to blur the edges between good and evil. Characters that we initially thought evil, think Mr Bennet, were in fact, at heart, trying to achieve something positive, it just took us to look at life from their point of view to understand it. Whilst other good citizens turned out to be far from angelic angels. To this point Season 3, aptly named Villains, seems not to disappoint.

*SPOILERS* Within these first few hours Ando kills Hiro, Peter Petrelli tried to kill his brother whilst his mother continues her seductive and secretive route of evil. Syla continues his killing spree, letting loose some new and distinctly unsavoury characters whilst he’s at it, Mohinder is showing signs of “mad scientist” syndrome, and though Nikki & Jessica may have gone to the grave, there’s a very familiar face cropping up somewhere else. These new angles have people time travelling & popping up in places where really, they shouldn’t be messing around. It instigates what seems to be a very exciting, action packed and character developing season…..Save the Cheerleader, Save the World?! For all we know, with everything so blurred as it is, it may be Kill the Cheerleader, Save the World!

It was with surprise that yesterday T made an appearance back into my life. I never really understood why he went out of it in the first place so the gaydar message that popped into my screen yesterday was a nice surprise. For those of you that don’t know what gaydar is, it’s a “dating” site for gay men, though underneath its shiny and welcoming exterior it’s actually a seedy, sex driven place where most are only after one thing. My past hermiting ways meant that I liked to at least pretend that I was still part of some kind of community, and if I wasn’t getting attention from guys out on the scene, in bars, in clubs, I at least got a few messages that made me feel as if I was still desirable. I must admit that past days have seen me having random hook-ups with this site, its simply so easy in the gay scene – you message someone saying what you’re up for, they never take offence and more than often they reply and presto, you have an afternoon of random passion with a complete and utter stranger. Sordid – yes, exciting – yes, relationship building – Hell NO! 

However, I must admit that I met T through gaydar and after calming myself down and realising that the only way I’d actually get a relationship was not to jump into bed with the first penis that messaged me, we went on a couple of dates and it was great. The problem is this – he’s a lovely man, you write the list of things you want from someone and he ticks most boxes. He’s attractive (and he’s 12years older, nearly 40 and still hot!), he’s fairly wealthy (owns a penthouse in East London and also time shares a chalet in the French alps), he’s a writer and is ambitious to take it to screen writer level, he’s a calming influence AND he didn’t try and jump into bed with me, even though we did indeed end up in his bed after one date – and I can tell you, if I’d have had it my way I’d have another number on my list!! Yet, after 4 or 5 dates he drifted out of my life and I never really knew why. Where was the spark? Where was that passion? It couldn’t have possibly been there otherwise surely I would have tried harder to make it work?

And then, I get this catch up message from him, saying he can’t believe he just let me disappear out of his life like that. Saying he’d love to catch up with me when he comes into London. And I really would love to see him again, perhaps this time will be different, perhaps we were in the wrong place last time, but can time stop or start a spark that might not have existed in the first place?! I guess there’s only one way to find out, better logon to gaydar!

Last night’s TV viewing turned out to be a delectable feast of model goodiness. In the semi final of Make Me A Supermodel US Ronnie once again survived the cut and became one of the four finalists. Though obviously written to cause every viewer a rush of hot blood, this episode’s not-so-subtle nudity worked to keep me engrossed for the hour, with 3 of the 4 finalists being male I found it hard to draw my eyes away from the oiled abs, flexing biceps and puckered pecs. But then, our favourite love-to-hate character Tyra herself was back with Cycle 10 of America’s Next Top Model! Let the bitching commence was how it started, and, with a nod of approval, I can only say that this series looks to be the fiercest yet – not for competition, but for pure backstabbing bitchiness! Great – bring it on! 

After a couple of hours being drawn into the world of the model it was time to see what Candace Bushnell’s newest creation to grace the screens – Lipstick Jungle – was all about. I’m afraid, it was more slapstick jungle for me and after trying my best to watch the full pilot I won’t be revisiting Candace’s trio of high class, family driven, business woman again. It is always hard to follow an internationally acclaimed series with something else….think Friends – Joey & Buffy – Angel for starters. With Sex and the City one of the most acclaimed and phenomenal series to date we were always going to be disappointed with what was brought out after but Lipstick Jungle really was the pits. Clichéd and obvious plotlines followed the trio of woman, all with off the cuff Sex and the City lines at their disposal through the rigours and stresses of New York life. Many of the camera shots were the same as SATC, the one off lines could have come from Carrie, Samantha, Miranda or even Charlotte’s mouth yet here they didn’t fit the women or the script. The cupcake from Magnolia’s featured in the pilot of SATC was again seen here, perhaps in what the script writers thought was a homage to the classic, but only served to remind the viewer that indeed, this wasn’t SATC and it would never live up to it. Even their marketing had be aimed at linking the two series together, a fatal flaw in my opinion because as a stand alone series Bushnell’s newest drama could live up, but with those comparisons rife, it never will. 

I was surprised when investigating the website that NBC have commissioned it for another series, perhaps in the states its has done well, perhaps as the series goes on the snowball gets well and truly rolling, but for a pilot of a supposedly new and exciting series, it was a dull as dishwater. 

In other news I have found and applied for what looks like a very interesting job with ITV. The Entertainment Developer Trainee position draws together everything I want in a job, creativity, following new and upcoming TV series, gathering information from an international market. It is a chance to commission new shows, use my creative input to create drama’s, and get a broader of understanding of the industry. I’ve submitted my application today so we will see what happens!