Dublin

A few of you have commented on the paucity of postings here of late. There’s a word for this, but words don’t mean a thing. There’s a name for it, and names make all the difference in the world. No, wait, that’s Talking Heads. Let me see if I can retune this a bit…

OK, we’re back. I’m in Dublin, as I’ve probably mentioned. I’m making a series for RTÉ called Scope, a science magazine show aimed at teenagers. This is the fourth series, and it’s a charming show – which is, of course, a euphemism for ‘it’s done intimidatingly well for three years, and I’m trying desperately hard not to screw it up this time around.’ The people are lovely, I’m enjoying the city, and the Guinness is entirely incidental to my views on either of these subjects. Clearly.

Doubtless I’ll have more to say anon, but in the meantime, here are some pictures:

DSC00262-1This arrangement of fruit was found lurking on the production manager’s desk one morning this week. I couldn’t help thinking that it would make a fine corporate logo.

DSC00264The Board. I much prefer working with index cards and pin boards than with white boards like this, but needs must – and everyone else on the production is obsessed with the word ‘matrix’ anyway. So be it. There’s no blow-up here, just the thumbnail, but you can see how many gaps there are in the series. We’re making twelve shows; the columns to the right are for the ‘celebrity’ strand (for which we have an idea and, hence, are pretty happy about), and a strand called ‘Burning Questions’ which I’m supposed to be writing by milking my back catalogue. You’ll notice I’ve not done much of that yet. Eek. However, the rest of the board is looking pretty healthy… as of this afternoon. This morning, it was scaring us silly.

DSC00265

The view from my head, typing the previous entry about Studio 60. The AP recced a possible location, a new eco-building designed by funky architects here in Dublin. There’s not enough new to the story for us to make much of it, but the funky architect was chatting away about how he’s just renovated his house using all the same techniques – wool cavity insulation, solar water heating, and so on. He was looking for lodgers pronto, seemed like a nice guy… and a week or so later, here I am. The orange thing to the right is the terribly clever zero-carbon wood pellet burner doohickie.

So far it’s been lovely – the landlord appears to be just as laid-back, interesting, and witty as I’d thought, and it’s causing no end of amusement that he’s entirely coincidentally dating a friend of one of my office colleagues. Ireland is, after all, a small place.

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