Dublin 1

Very quick one today as I'm supposed to be working really and have a meeting in 23 mins, but I wanted to drop a note in to say the I'm installed in Dublin and about to embark on this project proper.

After getting up at 0445 yesterday morning and flying over here, we got straight into the client's offices and went through all the admin stuff you have to do when working on a client site; security passes, laptop access etc and went through a series of project kick off meetings, resulting in a very tired and head-spun me stumbling off to the hotel later that afternoon in no mood for anything except a hot bath and a big soft bed.

Bit clearer this morning having had some sleep, went for a run down the Liffey for an hour or so at 0600 and very lovely it was too on this sunny, crisp morning. I got thinking about river cities on the way out and back, the Liffey's a very quiet, slow river, very calm and inky black and so still you can see the insects rippling the surface in places. Compared to the churning, milky, rolling Seine or the purposeful power of the Thames it's really quite sleepy and village-like. Got me wondering if you can define the sense of a city through the character of its river, which is the sort of not-entirely-nonsense-but-nearly I'm prone to dreaming up whilst running.

I know I've only been here a day, but I've not really got the measure of this town yet (it's my first time here). Architecturally it's a weird mish-mash of styles which don't really compliment each other at all; this feeling carries on into every aspect of the place creating a sense of laissez-faire and general lack of aesthetics which I'm not finding too endearing at the moment. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but it still feels like a bit of a frontier town, with everyone building their own thing regardless of context - don't they have town planners here?

Anyway, I'll have more of a wander round later in the week. Everyone says this place is wonderful; I'm never one to take the received view without finding out for myself though. The client is great though, very welcoming, very forthcoming and supportive, and in many ways we've a totally blank sheet to work from, and a 7th floor office with a gorgeous view to work in. Fingers crossed this could turn out to be a very cool project to work on... although four days a week without my Kiwi is a very high price to pay.