My Blog Has Moved!

From now on I won't be posting on this blog, instead I'll be putting everything up on my new blog: BinaryPixie.blogspot.com!

Check out my cool header, right?!

My new blog will pretty much be similiar to this one, just updates about my life in Dublin, Ireland and things I'm interested in such as technology, current affairs, celebrities, food and false nails!

Don't forget! BinaryPixie.blogspot.com!

Gangnam Style? Surely you mean Harlem Shake!!

I found these in Penneys...

Gangnam Style Socks

PSY Shirt

So last year! Don't they know it's all about the Harlem Shake now... And even that grew old very quickly!

Hehehe...

Ireland versus Austria (Group C World Cup Qualifier)

I went to the Aviva stadium on Landsdowne Road last night to the Republic of Ireland versus Austria football match. It was a qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup which will take place in Brazil (Road To Rio).

The band ready for the teams to arrive on the pitch for the anthems.

I was very lucky because I got 2 tickets very cheap! My mobile phone network 3 (Three Ireland) sponsors the national football team so they do a special 2 for 1 special offer for tickets to home matches. It's first come, first served and the number of seats available on this offer are extremely limited so I made sure to buy the seats quickly. It was a huge bargain in the end, two tickets were 17.50 each so my whole bill came to around €38.50 altogether including booking fee! I thought this was a great price- Imagine my surprise when I checked the actual price of seats in the section I bought in and found them to be €45! Each! So many thanks to Three for such a great deal!

There's Trap himself in his suit! (We were sooo far from the halfway line!!)

We were seated in section 116, my friend who was seated in 114 (The 'singing section') said that there's be a lot of atmosphere where we were and he was right! The seats were perfect- Really close to the pitch, close enough to the lads starting all the chants but yet far enough away that we weren't getting annoyed by them. 

I'm glad I painted my face because I was so bundled up I didn't look like an Irish fan at all apart from it!

Sub-zero temperatures and still smiling! (Some of us)

Austria scored an early goal which was disheartening but Ireland were soon awarded a penalty and Walters made it 1 all. Ireland scored again to go in winning at half time, it was a pity that all those goals were scored at completely the other end of the pitch than we were sitting :(  In the second half there was one more goal, scored by Austria (in the 3rd minute of injury time) and this was once again at the other end of the pitch. Of well. 

I was a bit disappointed that we didn't win. It was a draw that felt like a loss. Although I admit that the equaliser goal seemed inevitable throughout the whole second half and we definitely were not the better team, I'm really not sure where the referee got 3 minutes of extra time from?! He only gave one in the first half and there was a lot more stoppages during the first half!

Shane Long there, number 9, we saw a lot of him in the second half.

McLean ready to take a corner (The camera got very excited and was shaking!!)

One thing I found from being present in the stadium was that I really got carried away with the whole crowd mentality. At home when watching the match on tv you only really get excited over really good play. In the stadium you cheer for everything! The goalkeeper catches the ball... "Whoop whoop!" The other team make a bad pass... "Come On Ireland!!!" I even found myself nearly booing when the ref made decisions against Ireland! I was constantly jumping to my feet and clapping and chanting. It was great! There was so much energy. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my night and will definitely be attending every home match from now on- Especially since I get the tickets so cheap! I'd love to go to an away match also, unfortunately it looks unlikely that I will not have the money and time for this during the current campaign. I'll definitely plan a trip to see Ireland play away during the next Euro qualifiers though!

Liz On Top Of The World (Pride And Prejudice Soundtrack Cover)

I've posted some of my covers on here before but this one is one of my favorite songs in the whole world. It's from the soundtrack to Pride and Prejudice (The 2005 Keira Knightley one, not the BBC production with the lovely Colin Firth unfortunately). The score was written by an Italian composer named Dario Marionelli and some of the pieces are absolutely divine. Most of the pretty ones would require much too much effort for me to learn to play but I think I've got this one down in my own sort of way. I don't really play classical music any more and I really struggle to read music so the fact that I learnt this is a admirable feat for me!

Bear in mind that the sound quality is awful and I have an awful habit of wearing false nails that are highly inappropriate for playing the piano!

.

I love film music- It really stirs the emotions! I find it incredible that what one person can struggle to describe in words another person can portray so finely without words at all, just melodies! I especially love the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack because it has quite a modern, romantic feel to it.

My favorite track on the CD I have is Darcy's Letter. I love the story of Pride and Prejudice and I thought this piece captured the moment perfectly when Lizzie realises the huge mistake she has made about Darcy due to her pride.

 I do love the part in the movie during the Netherfield ball when, during the dance, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy suddenly appear to be dancing in a ballroom all alone. It thought it was a superb piece of cinematography! You can watch the scene here:

Ben & Jerry's: Clever Cookie Ice Cream

There was what seemed to be a new Ben & Jerry's flavour in my local Superquinn during the week and at €3 it was also half price. How could I not pick it up (Purely for reviewing on my blog of course!). I've struggled for quite some time to find a flavour that I can enjoy in Ireland as a substitute to Half Baked- It's not available here!! I love the bits of cookie dough in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough variety but the icecream is vanilla so it's a bit bland. I also love the brownies and chocolate so I do tend to buy Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Half baked is such a luxurious mixture of the two together!


So, I happened upon Clever Cookies and decided to try it as, although it is vanilla icecream, it contains chocolate cookie swirls. It also has vanilla and chocolate cookies and chocolate chip cookies within.

Wow, when I opened it, it definitely didn't look vanilla!

The chocolate swirls were omnipresent and tasted great!

The cookies were really big and tasty (Not like real cookies, but as ice cream toppings go they were divine ) I would definitely buy this flavour again- So chocolatey!

Cannibalism, Cancer and Chemotherapy (Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute)

I went to a talk last night in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. The title was "Cannibalism, Cancer and Chemotherapy". This was quite a misleading title- And the speaker admitted to this first thing, it was a catchy  headline in an attempt to get a larger audience to attend. 

It was quite in-depth and some of it went over my head. It was hard, for example, to keep track of all the oncogenes he was mention (I have a degree in Biology but the only cancers I ever studied was breast cancer so I wasn't familiar with most of the genes he was working on). It was so  nice for once to sit in a lecture where I was actually interested and learning something.

It really made me miss doing science in college. I'm currently not really enjoying my Msc in software technology. It's above my ability level and the I don't find the lectures consuming whatsoever. I'm also slightly clashing with one of my lecturers so I'm admittedly not enjoying myself.

I'm crossing off the days until I finish my course. After today I have two weeks of lectures for mid-term and once I'm back I have four academic weeks left. That's 16 days of lectures. The sooner its over the better.  

On y more positive note: It's Thursday which can mean only one thing- Three hours of 2 for 1 cocktails in Capitol Bar!

St. Patrick's Day Photos!

Here's some documentation of how I spent my Paddy's Day in Dublin, Ireland

Check out my cute shamrock nails!

Harry nursing his Guiness

Irish nails and Irish Guiness!

Happy Hour

Amy

iPose

Moi!

Eddie Rockets: Burger in a Bowl

 A few of the nerds and I decided to treat ourselves for lunch last week and we dashed to Eddie Rockets on Wexford Street (Camden Street?) during our hour off. I decided to go for the burger in a bowl for the first time. This item was added to the menu quit long ago, maybe a few years, but I've never been tempted to order it until now. It is meant to be for people on the Atkins diet or other lo-carb diets such as the Dukan diet. It's low carbohydrate because it comes without a bun and all the sauces are served on the side.

I know what you're thinking: If you wanted it to be like a salad, why not just order a salad? Well, the answer is that salads in Eddie Rockets are not part of the €10 combo deal! Only burgers are! So it's expensive to get salads in Eddie's. I'm a scabby student, I have to always be thinking of ways to get what I want for less dollar!! 

Some of the benefits of a burger in a bowl:

1. The portion of 'Eddie's Secret Sauce' served was much larger than normally comes on a burger in a bun. The secret sauce is the best part! Yum!
2. This menu item is also served with a vinaigrette kind of salad dressing which doesn't come with the burger at all: Free extras!!!
3. The burger in a bun is so much easier to eat than a burger in a bun. Eddie's burgers are renowned for being messy to eat. There are signs on the ways telling you how to eat them (Leave them in the bag and apply slight pressure to the edges) yet no matter how hard I try it always leaks meaning I lose all the goodies packed into the burger and I'm left with a saucy mess. With a burger I ate it with a knife and fork: No mess and no leakage!
4. It tastes healthier than a burger in a bun! I know it's actually not but the placebo effect is great and when I'm eating lettuce I feel healthy regardless of whether that lettuce is drowned in calorific, artery-blocking sauces and dressings :) . There was a lot more lettuce served with the burger in a bowl than the burger in a bun. 

Combo Deal: €10.50 for fries, soda and a burger in a  bowl.

I will be ordering this again! I still haven't won any vouchers for Eddie's from their instagram competitions. Mr Rockets, if you're reading this here is my instagram, give me free food please: http://instagram.com/p/WuFXueMFxM/

Fontana Cafe

On Thursday Mr. Kizzy and I went to Fontana Cafe after college. It's a small Italian cafe on Camden street.

I ordered penne paesana which was amazing. The sauce was so creamy, I loved it.  

Mr. Kizzy had the La Roma pizza which he thoroughly enjoyed too- And he's a pizza expert!

The only downfall we found were the chips- Surprising because they looked great and were home-made and proper potatoes. I suppose they were just more like wedges than chips and I'm not a fan of wedges!

I love the current Mark Jacobs cans of Diet Coke.

The ketchup was on the tables in this cute farm-style jar!!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

To celebrate,  here's a picture of my nephew Harry and his Guinness!

RSA Driver Theory Test Experience

Today started out as a very nerve-racking day as I had scheduled my driver theory test. I had originally planned to do it in December but I had missed my appointment so I spontaneously booked it last week again. I didn't really have enough time to properly prepare for it so I was worried I wouldn't cover everything.

The test centre was at Grand Mill Quay and was run by Prometric. I found it hard to find the centre, it wasn't very well sign posted on the street but once I found the building there were loads of arrows!

I didn't get any pictures inside but basically what happened was: When I walked in there was immediately a desk with 'check in' where a man asked for my name. He checked my ID (I brought a student card) and he asked me to sign the back of my passport photos. I then put all of my belongings into a locker and walked to the waiting room.

From there I was called to sit by a lady at a computer where she checked my details again and asked if I had any special needs which would require extra help. She then told me which number computer to go to in the next room.

The testing room was very intimidating, there were about 12 computers and about 7 of them were taken.

I sat at my computer and my name was on the screen. First there was a tutorial to show how the test worked, I liked how it explained that you could go back through the questions at any time and also you can flag questions as tough ones. Once I finished the test I went outside to the lobby again to await my results.

The best news...

I passed! I know I got the baseline pass mark but I don't care... I passed!!! Nest stop: Katie, queen of the road!!

The 'All Occasions' Dress

I bought this LBD from Coast in BT2 in 2007 (Well, my mother bought it for me- But I picked it out I swear!) I bought it for my 'Debutante Ball' from school which was in September 2007. I think it cost around 100euro which seemed like a lot of money then but now for me 100euro doesn't even seem expensive for Coast?! I never even go into that shop any more because the dresses cost so much...

I quite love the way I had my hair back when I was 18!!

Myself on the left with my twin sister on the way to my debs

Another shot of my debs dress

A few weeks later I got the wear the dress again. This time I was in Las Vegas for my sister's wedding. (It was really classy I swear, when I tell people my sisters like to get married in Vegas they presume we're white trash!). I think this dress was perfect for the occasion. 

These are the only pictures I have and they don't even show the dress!!

Now, five years later I dug out the dress once more! This time I needed a dress for a dinner dance which was taking place after the 2013 swimming inter-varsities. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't fit into it- It was a bit tight but it fits! I think tattoos that I recently acquired give the dress a whole new vibe, it was dressy but definitely still had 'Katie's style' written all over it.

I'm probably going to wear this little black dress again on  a few more occasions- It's timeless!