A 3D Guy Arrives in Dublin

There be crawlies outside that Patio door!

The idea behind this blog is to not so much cover the 'art side' of 3D, but to provide sort of a guide to living and working in Dublin for those who like myself are new here.  So I'll be covering the things that may catch you out, the nice places to eat or drink and things that you may want to avoid.

I'm going to try and add an entry each day  while I am here for the 5 months of my contract till mid march, by that time it should provide a pretty useful guide to those following over.  I'm currently over on a 5 month contract for Screen Scene FX working on a film as the lighter and also doubling up doing any sculpting needed as well.

When I 1st came over here 3 weeks ago I was placed in the 'Leason Bridge Guesthouse' which is a standard initial place for anyone working at screen scene (although this could change in the future).  This is a comfortable guesthouse and luckily just acc5ross the road from the Leason pub.  (Which has some amazing entertainment nights about half of the week with everything from jazz to rock.)   It can get a bit touristy, but to be honest its a nice place to stop for a few drinks as your introduction to Dublin.

Now if you like me are a smoker, most places in Dublin will not let you smoke there, so you'll want to hunt some nice pubs and restaurants that have an outside area.  If you are especially unlucky and are at the Leason Bridge guesthouse on the ground floor, you may get one of the rooms with the patio doors leading to the 'patio area' (which in reality is just the car park).  Now this make seem like a godsend as you can simply open your patio doors and have a cigarette outside with ease...... BUT!.... while its great during the day, at night it is infested with horse lice and thousands of other crawly things.  So if you have any problem with insects (as I do) I advice not opening that patio door after dark.

Your 1st couple of weeks in Dublin it is not unusual for even the most restrained person to go a bit 'pub mad' and be out every night.  Mainly as literally every street corner has a pub, bar or restaurant.  But this will soon wear off as you'll be surprised how much it mounts up money wise.

Talking of money, settling in Dublin will costs you more than you maybe realize.  most people coming over here to Screen Scene do end up pretty broke for the 1st few weeks until their pay kicks in for a week or three.  This is less of an issue if you have a couple of grand spare to rely on as well.  So do not expect to be living the high life for the 1st few weeks, at some point your money will run out and you will wish you had been more careful of it.

Also cigarettes are more expensive than in England (or most of the EU) so you may want to stock up before you travel over if you smoke.  Guinness however is only 4.20-4.60 a pint over here and tastes about 300% better than any Guinness you have have ever had before.  In fact I am reliably informed by Garloff sitting next to me now, that against all logic, Guinness actually has less calories than a pint of German lager.

Next time we'll cover accommodation, Bed and breakfasts, shared rooms and apartments.  (We may also touch on a few hings about phones that could trip you up if your bringing yours over.)