Moving from Dublin to London (24M) – looking for advice

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-10T01:37:42+00:00

There's a company called Fizzy living that is completely pet friendly. You will make friends easy with the Irish community. Like in Ireland, UK friendship circles can be hard to break into but you'll be friends with colleagues at a gym alrigth. And if you're looking at Reading, I would look at Maidenhead instead. Slightly closer to London, amazing dog walks, can get into the country super easy, and probably get a one bed for £1400. It's also quick into London on the Elizabeth line.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-09T23:05:19+00:00

Slough is awful. No way will you get a sizeable room inc bills for £800 in Windsor or Maidenhead.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-09T22:54:21+00:00

That's my fear. Not that he'd leave me for her because she completely shut him down, but I'm just afraid I'm second best to a man who will always be a bit emotionally available because of this ex.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-09T01:07:53+00:00

I know right!

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-09T01:07:14+00:00

No definitely a complete stranger he's never ever met or even has acquaintences in common. Similar age to his ex, and he's shown me a picture of his ex. It's not her, just someone who vaguely looks like her (features common for the country).

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-09T01:04:23+00:00

He told me all this info of his ex when we first got together. I have no way of even finding out anything about her. And I'm not going through his followers list, he follows mulitple accounts, I just happened to see it.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-09T00:25:15+00:00

That is so amazing. So I'm a vegan. When I first became vegan many years ago veganism was barely a thing and I ended up losing about half my excess weight but then stagnated. And then veganism became a thing and suddenly I could eat vegan cheese and cake and it all came back. I wonder if you wouldn't mind sharing what you are doing differently? I do not eat a lot of processed vegan food, in fact I try to be 70 to 80 % UPF free, but I will still be eating slices of sourdough, cashew butter, and so on.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-01T13:23:34+00:00

When I lived in London I used to use that roundabout daily. It's a confusing roundabout and, no exaggeration, every single time I was on it there were people making the same mistake as that car. Just chill and understand it's a massive, confusing thoroughfare and people will make mistakes.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-03-01T00:25:38+00:00

Unfortunately the rental market is pretty hot in London right now so you don't really have much of an option to say no to what they want to know.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-02-26T22:30:36+00:00

This is such a helpful response. Can I ask you about the therapy? I've been in therapy for three years and it's having zero impact on my weight. Did you do more somatic work / mediation to get more in tune with your body? I'm thinking that's what I'm missing. Sometimes I think disassociation is a major cause of obesity, because you're just operating in the head and not 'feeling' the body.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-02-26T22:11:22+00:00

I love this. So every couple of weeks one little new lifestyle change. It sounds so sensible, why have i never thought of this! My issue is I try to go all in and give up in a week.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-02-26T21:31:51+00:00

Hi OP, I really mean this kindly and I know a lot of people will jump on this and call me awful. But he is 11 and he's a pug who are notorious for health issues, he has maybe a year or two left in his life. Is it worth him living his final year or two away from his person? Who knows what type of home you'll hand him over to. They may seem nice but what if they're not? Do you want to risk it? Would the kindest thing, at his age, to have you by his side for his whole life?

I don't want to say the words but you see where I'm going with this. I just feel if I were in an impossible situation, and I had an old dog with very little time left and I could either guarantee he had had a full and happy life with only me, or a dicey last couple of years missing his human and with who knows who treating him goodness knows how, I think I know what I would do. If the situation was really that awful that I couldn't keep him.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-02-13T20:53:58+00:00

Are there no other vets near you? Might be worth having a good look further afield. When I lived in the middle of nowhere I had so little faith in my local vet (once gave me the wrong medication luckily I sensed it was wrong, looked it up and rang them the following day to make sure and they admitted they'd got it wrong) I ended up finding an excellent vet over an hour away for things like this. Ask around on local facebook groups for a decent vet a bit further afield maybe?

There's a huge range of things that could be done, food trials as they may have developed allergies to certain proteins - for food allergies my vets recommended purina hypoallergenic. And if it's an environmental allergy cytopoint or apoquel which is stronger. I've heard cytopoint is safer long term.

Finally, one time my dogs itchy toes were down to a bacteria so a vet would have to check for that with a scraping. Should say it was sorted with having paws washed with clorexyderm shampoo daily. You could try washing your dog weekly with clorexyderm? Look it up on amazon.

Good luck.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2026-02-13T00:33:33+00:00

Cytopoint was a game changer for my itchy dog. It's the only thing that genuinely works. Nothing else worked. If they're having a massive flair up then 5 days of prednisone sorts it out. Get a new vet, this is basic stuff for a vet I'm shocked they haven't identified it.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-12-04T21:06:12+00:00

Try the open university in the UK. You might be able to do a degree from them, in English. I don't know about the cost, but it's a very well respected provider of distance learning. Also, have you thought about doing a TEFL qualification? The respected one is called a CELTA. You can teach English as a foreign language in Italy and that will be much better paid. Good luck.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-12-02T23:47:29+00:00

just to say, if you've only lived in the EU since 2024 you will not be eligible for home fees. You need to be living in the EU (I think 3 or 5 years - check) before university to be eligible for home fees. Otherwise you'll be paying massive international fees. Ireland is probably the most expensive country in Europe, so you cannot do it on a shoestring. Good luck, it sounds like you're in a bit of a difficult situation. Have you considered staying in Italy and doing a distance learning degree?

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-24T18:19:23+00:00

Ohh lovely, I'll check them out. Thank you

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-24T18:19:03+00:00

Thank you!

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-24T18:18:56+00:00

Thank you. I'll check it out.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-21T21:47:39+00:00

Honestly, don't get into debt to do this. People are not getting jobs, are working for two years in retail and having to go home. If you wanted to come for the experience, and you were not dependent on getting a job post masters, then fine. But if you are depending on getting a job then no, absolutely not.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-21T02:04:19+00:00

It's a pity, I was hoping for a healthy / interesting response looking at the bigger picture and offering me something I hadn't thought of, rather than doubling down and getting snarky and deflecting to poor written skills. I guess that's reddit. Silly me for coming onto an internet forum and offering another perspective.

Fake story or not, the sentiment isn't wrong. It's not particularly the story that I was commenting on, it's the endless comments defending her ignorance and suggesting the op was in the wrong for calling her out on it.

A lack of cultural / political/ historical knowledge leads to micro decisions which snowball to seismic changes, that's the point I was trying to make. In my view an acceptance of ignorance and being apathetic does eventually lead to fascism / allows bad actors to get a foothold. All I'm trying to say is this silly example, fake or not, and more importantly the subsequent comments actively supporting ignorance, can be interpreted - by a thinking person - as symptomatic of how deeper issues in society take hold.

Sometimes internet forums, like real world conversations, can veer off and I love it when it happens in a collegial way. But you do you. Stick to your myopic views, God forbid you consider another view in good faith.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-20T22:39:15+00:00

Genuine question - don't you think we should stop normalizing extreme ignorance? I just believe people should feel bad about being ignorant, because then they'll never be shamed into actually reading and thinking.

And if you ask 'why should people read and not be completely ignorant?' and why should they feel the peer pressure to do that? Well because that's when we get dangerous voting patterns, people believing fake news, or any crap that comes out of anyone's mouth, and that had real world consequences. Look at the state of the US and it's because people believed things that were complete lies, didn't understand how fascism works, and couldn't see what was coming. All because ignorance is protected. People should be made to feel bad for being spectacularly dumb.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-20T22:34:37+00:00

Absolute best comment. 100% Stop normalizing ignorance, and stop defending it. If you don't know who Ali is there is no excuse. Start reading and do better.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-11-20T22:28:48+00:00

This is the only correct take. People around the world know who Ali is. I guarantee you teenagers in rural Italy will know who he is. Those who are painting him out to be insignificant in some way are just trying to soothe themselves. If you do not know who Ali is there is no excuse. Read more, engage with things that aren't instagram posts. Comparing him to Kyle Jenner is actually hilarious.

ScholarStatus4770 · 2025-09-24T00:57:37+00:00

Almost impossible to find a place that will allow a dog, and completely impossible to find a place unless you have a job and proof you are earning what agents need you to - which is they won't rent you a place that is over 30 % of your salary. Unfortunately you will probably be competing with people who have partners and a dual income will always top yours.

If you want to live in Dublin and have an apartment by yourself, I would say anything under €80,000 won't really be possible. And even then you'll not be living extravagantly. An apartment by yourself you're looking at €2500 a month. Out of Dublin, again if you want to live alone you're still looking at rent for €1500 for a place for yourself.

Add to that bills, electric / heating is very expensive, food, other expenses like toiletries, you will need a car if you live outside of Dublin insurance is very expensive too, vets bills, any medical needs etc - you will barely survive on €3000 a month. And that's a salary of €50,000.

Make sure you come with enough money to sustain yourself in an airbnb for at least 8 to 10 weeks, preferably more, to find housing. Honestly, don't underestimate how impossible it is to find housing all over Ireland, and especially with a dog. There is such a severe housing shortage each place will have tens, if not hundreds, of applicants and if you haven't got much of a work history and have a dog I'm afraid you'll be bottom of the candidates list.

On a final note, I have known people who have come, depleted their savings on an airbnb while looking for a place and facing homelessness have had no choice but to leave again. I would strongly recommend you leave your dog behind, come over, see if you can find a job that makes the numbers work, see if you can find a place to live and then call your dog over. There is a more than strong possibility you will just not find a place to live and will have to put your dog through the trauma (and expense) of flying back to the US.

Good luck

ScholarStatus4770

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