Blog Archive: October 2015

How To Prepare Traditional Uzbek Plov (Lamb and Rice Pilaf)

31 October, 2015 | Food blogger | 37 seen

In this post you will learn how to prepare a traditional Uzbek plov (lamb and rice pilaf. It might sound as a complicated food to prepare, but in fact if you have the right ingredients and right tools (cooking pot) there is nothing complicated in it.

There are three main ingredients to get that tasty plov done - lamb meat, rice and quince. Since I'm living in Republic of Georgia, it's easy to find all the ingredients here, on the other hand, it might be tricky to get the correct ingredients in other parts of World. For a seasoning there is one must have - a cumin, but unfortunately a seasoning lady I usually buy spices from in Tbilisi, sold me the wrong cumin and there are no cumin in this recipe, but cumin still is must have, to get that special flavor.

So I headed to local Turkish store called Ankara on Aghmanashebeli street in Tbilisi to buy that lamb meat. I took about 1.5 kg of lamb meat. For the second main ingredient I used the regular rices (not special ones) you can buy at your local store, got quince at local market and here you go - a traditional Uzbek plow.

Ingredients:

1kg - lamb meat
1kg carrots
1kg onions
1kg quince
1kg rice
3 garlic cloves
2 glasses of oil
few tbs of cumin and other seasoning you prefer (salt, pepper)

Cooking directions

Add rices to the bowl with water and leave them for about 30 minutes
Chop lamb meat in pieces and add it to cooking pot. You will need to add some oil here.
While cooking lamb meat, add chopped onions and grated carrots to the pot, brown them.Add again oil.
Now add rice and cover them with a water. Once water is gone, add the rest of the oil.
When meat and rice are getting soft, put sliced quince and garlic cloves at the bottom of you pot (dug them)
Add cumin and other spices you prefer
Cook until ready

Total cooking time: ~ 2 hours

And here comes the photos

Rice in a bowl

I always add rice in the bowl filled with A water, just to remove mealiness from rice. 30 minutes are just enough.

Quince fruit

Quince is very important and must have ingredient for a good and tasty traditional Uzbek plov. I got quince at the local Tbilisi market for 4 GEL per kilogram.

Onions

And a lot of onions

Lamb meat

So you basically put that sliced lamb meat on a good cooking pot, fry it a little bit, then add onions, carrots and quince and at the end add rice. You can add cumin seasoning as well. Making a plow requires a lot of time, be ready to cook this delicious Uzbek plov for some 2 hours at lest.

Traditional Uzbek Plov

Cooking at home is cool, I will add more cooking related posts to the food blogger section soon.

Now, if you liked this recipe, leave me a comment, spread the word and share this recipe.

How To Carve a Pumpkin and Make Stunning Halloween Photos

31 October, 2015 | Digital Photography School | 9 seen

In this post you will learn how to carve a pumpkin and prepare it for a good photography. Let's call this digital photography school tutorial - a pumpkin photo session.

Tools you will need: a pumpkin, sharp knife, a marker, candles a DSLR camera and a tripod (for photography)

For a pumpkin I visited local Tbilisi market and bought one for 2 GEL (~0.6$)

Let's start with carving that pumpkin:

Use a marker to draw up lines on the pumpkin

You can use some trafaret or you can just draw by hand. I prefer doing it by hand (although have never tried using a trafaret yet)

Cutting of the top

Start with cutting of the top of your pumpkin, so you can scoop out the flesh

Use a regular table spoon for removing the flesh

Use a sharp knife for cutting out the lines

Since I love to cook I have plenty of knives available, if you don't have a super sharp kitchen knife you can use any regular cutting knife, but be extra cautious

Shape up the lines

Carving Halloween pumpkin

Use flesh to make it look more scary

Halloween Pumpkin Photography

Now it's time to setup a tripod and make Halloween pumpkin photography. I decided to go dark. For camera settings I entered Manual mode and experimented with f5.6 and f11... ISO 100 (I'm shooting on tripod), exposure between 0.3 - 30 seconds. Test for yourself.

For photo editing I used Adobe Lightrooms, but you can create stunning photos using just your camera.

Halloween pumpkin photography

I took my DSLR camera, installed it on tripod and started to experiment. This year I found Christmas tree light diodes working best for my photography.

A pumpkin house photography

Halloween pumpkin photography 2015

Hope you enjoyed this simple Halloween pumpkin carving and photography tutorial. Make sure you check other digital photography school tutorials as well. I would only appreciate if you would follow me on Flickr as well.

Have a spooky Halloween!

Georgian Parliament Building (Kutaisi)

29 October, 2015 | Tourism objects | 74 seen

That day finally come and I have finally photographed the legendary Georgian Parliament building in Kutaisi. After picking up my mom at Kutaisi International Airport and before heading towards to Tbilisi, we made a short excursions around Kutaisi and villages near Kutaisi.

It took me just a few seconds to capture this amazing landscape of futuristic parliament building.

The Georgian Parliament Building in Kutaisi has been the home of the Parliament of Georgia since its inauguration on May 26, 2012, replacing the Parliament building at 8 Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.

Georgian Parliament building in Kutaisi

I have been dreaming of picture like this for some years already, since 2012 at least. Now, I feel very proud of myself and my photography skills.

The government, during the building's construction, promoted it as a symbol of Georgia's bright, democratic future. Its location in Kutaisi was touted as a boost for the regional economy there as well as a way to knit the country closer together. Critics state that the building is a waste of money, and that having Parliament in Kutaisi, while the rest of the government remains in Tbilisi, is inefficient.

Back in the days I was wondering about possible short future of this parliament building. Read: Mystery with Kutaisi Parliament building

From different sources, I have heard that Parliament will be relocated back to Tbilisi, starting Spring 2013. (Ups, it's still standing there), latest I red an article, that Parliament will be relocated February 2014. (As on October 2015, no information heard of relocation)

I believe it's great that Kutaisi has such interesting architectural building. Of course I would enjoy the view even more if in the background we could see other tall sky scrapers instead just of plain grasslands but hey.. Kutaisi has all the opportunities to attract some fat cats to complete this miracle of architecture.

It;s said the total cost of this building was about $83,000,000

Sorrel Soup With Hard-Boiled Eggs (Photo Recipe)

28 October, 2015 | Food blogger | 10 seen

Today we will prepare one of mine all times favorite soup - Sorrel soup.

The idea for this blog post come out of my 365 days photo project, when everyday I'm taking some picture in Manual mode and publish it to my Flickr account. Since the strong jury didn't enjoyed my entry photo with sliced onion for day 13 I was literally taken to the kitchen and all I has to do - just to photograph. One image speaks thousands words! Enjoy!

Ingredients: Sorrels, carrots, smoked meat, potatoes, dills, parsley, some onion and some seasoning.

Start with grated carrots:

Grated carrot

Chop that meat

Dills and parley

Sliced potatoes

Now bring all the above ingredients to some pot (before you should boil some water in it)

Boiling sorrel soup

Scissors and sorrels

Now, you should add sorrel to your soup at the end. Take scissors and nicely slice your sorrels. You can of course use knife, but I prefer scissors

chopped sorrels

Hard boiled egg

Your sorrel soup ready to be served

If you enjoy my photo recipes please leave a comment, pin some of the images to Pinterest or follow my photo stream on Flickr.

Room One - Wall and Ceiling Painting with Water Based Paint

27 October, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 10 seen

It took us some time to figure out what do next with our recently inherited rural house which was not in her best shape. After I started my fight with grass, (Lawn moving with scythe and Lawn moving with trimmer) I decided it's time to free up some space inside the house, so we actually have some room to stay for night, for example. Since our major tasks for this summer was actually to change that leaky roof, we were not ready to invest any serious money in building a perfect room, so I bought the cheapest water based paint, some brushes and started to paint.

We decided we will go for a white color, we will make one room completely white (except floor), so at least we have some space which looks decent enough to put in some mattress and probably stay overnight sometime.

It took us some few days actually clean up that room from junk

Room waiting to be painted

The walls was covered with some wallpapers and ceilings was blow out with a chalk. The last time those wallpapers were covered and chalk blown up was some 40 years ago.. Both under wallpapers and under chalk were cardboard plates. So all I had to do was prepare those plates for painting. So I spent some half day to remove wallpapers and scrape off chalk.

Wall furnace and chimney

That's probably an element we enjoy the most, that wall furnace actually does it's job pretty well. It keeps warm inside.

Cleaned walls and ceilings

Water based paint

Half ceilings painted

Tip: Always start with ceilings

Ceilings and one wall painted

Now it starts looking good

Furnace wall painted

Window waiting to be painted

We actually painted window frames in the same day, using window paint

View from Outside

The Bottom Line

As you can see this is not a perfect solution, walls still are uneven, ceilings are not ideal... but instead this is a fast and cheap way, how you can turn that ugly room into something decent.For a better effect you should apply two layers of paint, which is what I didn't for this room (If I would, the effect probably would be even better).

Coming up - floor painting for this room

Café 'Staburadze' Review in Kuldīga (Latvia)

25 October, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 20 seen

Cafe Staburadze is located on Liepajas street in Kuldiga. Here serves a traditional Latvian cuisine (pork chops and other stuff) and ... I just love this place.

After I had tried almost all of the Kuldīga cafe's and restaurants I have concluded that exactly cafe Staburadze is among my favorite dining places in lovely Kuldīga town.

And here are just a few reasons you will love Staburadze as well - it's centrally located in Kuldīga (on central Liepajas street) - it has a budget friendly prices, they serve traditional Latvian cuisine here (pork chops), staff is friendly but what's important - food is just excelent.

Cafe Staburadze building in Kuldiga

Menu at Cafe Staburadze

Salads, snacks, pork, chicken, beef, fish and desserts.

Seems they have covered all spectrum of food here.

Meat balls with boiled potatoes as side dish and cabbage salads

Guess what? I will prepare some of this in one of my next food blog posts.

Solyanka soup

Don't miss solyanka soup once in Latvia. I will definetly add a separate blog post how to prepare this amazing soup at home.

Meat sauce strogonov - yes another reason for another food blog post - how to prepare strogonov.

Dessert at Cafe Staburadze.

The Bottom Line

I will be back to this place and I will order a lot of pork chops, meat balls and tasty desserts. This place knows how to cook!

Diana Krall Concert Review in Tbilisi (Georgia)

24 October, 2015 | Living in Georgia | 11 seen

Diana Krall performed in Tbilisi in frames of Tbilisi Jazz Festival and her own Wallflower World Tour on October 23, 2015.

We visited this show at Tbilisi Philharmonic hall (Previous time I was here was a concert of a Russian band Aquarium and Boris Grebenshchikov 2014).

During this show some older songs from Diana Krall repertoire, like Fly me to the moon were performed and of course some new ones. But speaking of me, I most probably enjoyed the most song California Dreamin'. Amazing show, great animated visuals on screen.

The show was set to start at 20:00

Stage is ready for Diana Krall at Tbilisi Jazz Festival 2015

As it happens in such events, show didn't started at 20:00 but at 21:00, so the visitors had plenty time to take selfies and I had plenty time to master my DSLR photography (I took my camera with telephoto lens attached)

Girl with a Polaroid camera

I captured this lovely girl with her Polaroid camera (instant photos)

Tbilisi Philharmonic hall

Our seats were at the balcony and telephoto lens test for my digital photography school project seemed just right solution. So I played a little while waiting show to be started.

Diana Krall at Piano during Tbilisi Jazz Festival

Diana Krall and band performing in Tbilisi, Georgia

Patrick Warren at keyboards

Just amazing how keyboards (Patrick Warren) and piano (Diana Krall) worked together in ideal symphony. And amazingly good photo as well.

Diana Krall and Dennis Crouch (bass)

Diana Krall and band performing California Dreamin' on Tbilisi stage

This was probably the version of California Dreamin' I have enjoyed the most. Just amazing.

The Bottom Line

I must admit I was not familiar with Diana Krall until few years ago I was "educated" on Jazz music drinking wine and listening to classics like Louis Armstrong and other, and then.. then I was introduced to great works of Diana Krall. Speaking of this night - Absolutely brilliant show spent in pleasant company.

About Diana Krall

Diana Krall, OC, OBC (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide. On December 11, 2009,Billboard magazine named her the second Jazz artist of the 2000–09 decade, establishing her as one of the best-selling artists of her time.
Krall is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debuting at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums. To date, she has won five Grammy Awards and eight Juno Awards. She has also earned nine gold, three platinum, and seven multi-platinum albums.

Boiled Potatoes With Ground Meat Sauce Recipe

24 October, 2015 | Food blogger | 13 seen

Welcome everyone to just another food blogger post series - today we will prepare a very simple recipe - Boiled potatoes with ground meat sauce.

It's just that time of the year when I found myself more in kitchen just eager to cook something, and after a visit to the local market I decided I want to prepare something simple, tasty and something I could photograph for my digital photography school project. As I believe a successful food blogger should take sharable and pinable pictures (share them now!)

This is one of the simplest foods I can actually name - I was like a 5 or something when my grandmother taught me how to prepare sauces, and I really love sauces. It took me more time to learn how to actually boil potatoes.

What ingredients will you need?

Potatoes, just obliviously, ground (minced) meat, carrots, onions, salt&pepper, a little bit milk (I prefer sour cream, but milk is just fine)

For how long should I cook?

About 25 minutes

Cooking directions

Peel the potatoes and place in a saucepan

Now add water and potatoes until they are soft

Tip: You can add already boiled water to make this process faster

Take two onions and two carrots

Now take your cutting board and chop some onions. That's actually the thing I enjoy the most - chopping onions. Don't forget to grate carrots.

Grate carrots; chop onions

Now preheat your pan, we will add both carrots and onion to it in few seconds.

Add grated carrots and chopped onions to the pan

Fry until onions get that brown skin

add ground meat

Now you should fry that ground meat together with carrots and onions. Fry until it looks that meat is cooked enough.

Add 4 spoons of flour once meat and vegetables looks done. Flour will help to create a lovely mass

Add some water - until it covers meat

Heat it but don't allow it to boil. Stir until you get a coherent mass.

Cut dills

We will add some dills to the potatoes

Boiled potatoes with dills

Serve - for a better taste add some pickles to the serving

Now, just share, pin and enjoy your boiled potatoes covered with ground meat sauce!

First Barbecue Festival in Our Newly Inherited House

22 October, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 6 seen

While there is a good reason to visit a barbecue festival in Armenia, in this post I will provide some details on the first barbecue festival (OK, it's actually a party) we held in our recently inherited country house, where some serious home remodeling tasks are performed.

Throwing up a barbecue party is a must have to fully enjoy all the good works and intentions you are doing while performing such a routine tasks, like fighting a grass (and I had fight with it all Summer along), figuring out how to change that leaky roof, or doing some paint job. This was a special party, there were not many people invited (just 3 and a dog) but it got us amazing feeling of happiness. Hey, we are on the right track.

Preparing table for a barbecue set

We did find some old table inside the house and covered it with a linen tablecloth and got a really lovely place to serve barbecue

Simplified grill

Overgrown territory starts to look alike a lawn

I have used both a scythe and a trimmer, but latter I hired a trimmer guy who did all the hard work for us (expensive, but worth of cost).

Grill is ready for some meat

I used apple twigs for grill charcoal

Chicken meat grilled together with tomatoes

Our dog - German shepherd Bob we inherited together with a house

Meat is ready

Meat is served

Return to National Bank of New York

Yes, another inherited thing - sacks with such lettering - I will not disclose information about content of them. But seriously speaking I was surprised when we found those sacks. But hey life is full of surrealism.

So we sat on our sacks with lettering Return to National bank of New York and enjoyed our first barbeque at our newly inherited house.

During the summer we held many, countless barbeque parties like this. Honestly speaking I hadn't eaten so much meat like never, even in Georgia.

Hiking in Borjomi (Georgia)

21 October, 2015 | Outdoor Activities | 9 seen

A group of four Georgia Expat Photographer club members visited Borjomi on September 20, and we did a lovely hike here. I took my camera, Map My Ride app (great for recording trekking routes) and here is the result.

During this route which took us some 3 hours we visited 2 lovely monastery sites, discovered an open air sulphur pools, spent some time in Borjomi mineral water park and of course took that lovely Borjomi cable car

About route: In total this route was 8.25 km long, took about 3 hours to finish (we did have stops, and I paused app there) and burned 2707 Kcal.

Route map

We started our route by taking Borjomi cable car to get uphill.

Borjomi Spring water Dome house (taken from cable car)

Our hike started here (well actually few meters bellow we entered that Borjomi cable car).

Ticket price per ride - 3GEL

View to Borjomi

So the cable car got us up, and we took our chances to shot lovely photos like above

Acorns in Borjomi

Mountainous road in Borjomi

We took a mountainous road Borjomi - Baghi - Tba - Tsemi by foot and headed to Temple of Saint Seraphim of Sarov

At Temple of Saint Seraphim of Sarov place

After a little walk (some 1.5km) we were on site. So basically you can find here a small and lovely church and some wood architecture. Read more: Temple of Saint Seraphim of Sarov (Borjomi/Georgia)

Entering Qveda Sadgeri village

We continued our walk to the Church of Saint George

Vineyards in Qveda Sadgeri village

Haystack in Borjomi

Church of Saint George

Read more: Saint George Church and Monastery (Borjomi/Georgia)

View from Church of Saint George

Georgian cow

Pretty standard scenery in rural Georgia

Wrecked car

Haystack and a barn

Cleaning carpet on... asphalt

Georgia will never end to surprise you

Open air sulphur pools in Borjomi

Didn't tried them actually, but I was surprised to see such a great thing and made a separate article on Open Air Sulphur Water Swimming Pools in Borjomi

Borjomula river in Borjomi

Newly constructed and old wooden bridge in Borjomi

Rocks on the bend of Borjomula river in Borjomi

Waterfall in Borjomi

Borjomi mineral water park

Read more about Borjomi Mineral water park

Photographer meets photographer in Borjomi

The Bottom line:

This was a very interesting hiking route, offering a lot of scenery views from whom I made a lot of photos. This hiking route is pretty easy and you don't have to be an experienced hiker to complete it. You should although have some good climbing boots/sneakers at least and don't forget to take a bottle of water and some snack at least. Latter you can enjoy your meal in one of the many Borjomi restaurants.

If you would like to repeat such tour with me or any other Georgia Expat Photographer club member, please join our group on Facebook for further information.

Lawn Mowing with a Trimmer

20 October, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 5 seen

Right, this post is like and extended version for my previous post in home remodeling series on lawn mowing with a scythe. After a tough fight with grass using old school tools like scythe it was enough for me. And I mean it - no more scythe for me.

Having a house in rural Latvia teaches a very important lesson, you have to own a trimmer, or it will be a very costly for you to fight the grass. Since some serious trimmers cost a lot and we hadn't actually planed to spend a money on it, we found an owner who could rent us out his trimmer for a six pack of beer.

Author of this blog captured in action fighting grass with a trimmer

Gosh, what an experience - during my first trimmering I learnt I know nothing about trimmering grass - first of all - I was very afraid of this machine, second I had no idea how it is actually working - well I learnt that latter (I have a whole grass fighting story during our first year of home remodeling)

Our fish pond completely overgrown in grass

I actually did something wrong with this trimmer, so I had to buy new details for it. So my first experience of lawn mowing with trimmer cost me some extra $40. And I actually didn't trimmered a thing. But I was on the right track - now I knew - trimmer is a must have tool.

So now being back in Tbilisi, I decided that a trimmer is a must have purchase for the next Summer. I actually decided to setup an improvised whiteboard holder using a metal stairs and write on it - Home Remodeling: Trimmer, since recently I launched another personal project - 365 photo project - I thought hey - I gone submit such photo as my day 5/365 - after experimenting with a photography for some hour or something - here is what I got:

Improvised whiteboard holder

Unfortunately this photo didn't end on my 365 day photo chalenge project page, this one did.

Now, back on the trimmers - there is a great article How to Use a String Trimmer Like a Pro covering few simple secrets on becoming a trimmer pro.

Now, back to the home remodeling and challenges - I believe it's one of the fun ways how to run like any project - you have your goals, like to finish your home remodeling or finish your photo project, so there is that stage when you make a decision to act, and then there is the middle game, and only then there is a finish. I cant see a finish for home remodeling tasks like in next 5 years, I can still see finish for my photo challenge - and I already can see - I will publish pictures from home remodeling tasks on it.

You are kindly invited to join my project on Flickr.

10 Popular Sony Vaio Laptop / Notebook Models To Choose From

19 October, 2015 | Laptop Reviews | 311 seen

I wouldn't call myself the biggest evangelist of Sony laptops, as I believe more popular are ASUS, DELL, HP and other brands, but that doesn't mean Sony doesn't have some powerful laptops to deliver for basically all consumer needs.

VAIO was originally a brand of Sony Corporation, aka Sony VAIO . A couple of years Sony sold its PC business to the investment firm Japan Industrial as part of a restructuring effort to focus on mobile devices. Sony maintains a minority stake in the new, independent company, which currently sells computers in the United States, Japan, and Brazil as well as an exclusive marketing agreement. Sony still holds the copyright trademarks for the VAIO brand and logo.

In this article, you will find some of the latest and popular VAIO laptop models, alternatively see: Top 5 VAIO Laptops 2020

A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate income at no cost to you. Prices for laptops listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and is updated daily. For actual prices please refer on the product page on Amazon.

VAIO SX14 - Intel Core i7-8565U Laptop | 16GB Memory (RAM) | 512GB PCIe SSD | Windows 10 Pro | 14.0-Inch Ultra HD 4K (3840x2160) Display | Brown

The VAIO SX14 is the newest laptop from VAIO. This laptop has a BIGGER 14-inch display, available in 4K Ultra HD. This laptop is LIGHTER by utilizing a new UD carbon, eliminating 30% of weight from the top cover. This laptop is FASTER with the latest Intel 8th generation quad-core processor enhanced by VAIO TruePerformance. Plus the convenience of every port you could ever need, including USB Type-C, while only weighing in at 2.32 lbs and approximately 0.59-inch thin.

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VAIO SX12 - Intel Core i7-8565U | 16GB Memory (RAM) | 512GB PCIe SSD | Windows 10 Pro | 12.5" Full HD (1920x1080) Display | Black

The VAIO SX12 might be diminutive in size but it's certainly not lacking in performance. This notebook features an Intel 8th generation quad-core processor enhanced by VAIO TruePerformance and every port you could ever need while only weighing in at 1.97 lbs and approximately 0.62-inch thin.

Intel Core i7-8565u
16GB memory (RAM)
512GB PCIe SSD
12. 5" Full HD (1920x1080) Display
Approx. 1. 97 lbs

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VAIO SX14 - Intel Core i7-10710U | 16GB Memory (RAM) | 1TB PCIe SSD | Windows 10 Pro | 14.0" Ultra HD 4K (3840x2160) Display | Black

The VAIO SX14 is the newest laptop from VAIO. This laptop has a large 14-inch display, available in 4K Ultra HD. By utilizing UD carbon, this laptop only weighs 2.34 lbs and is approximately 0.59-inch thin. This is the FASTEST laptop yet featuring the latest Intel 10th generation processor enhanced by VAIO TruePerformance. With Windows Hello and a finger print scanner, security is built in. Plus the convenience of every port you could ever need, VGA, LAN, USB , HDMU and USB Type-C.

Intel Core i7-10710U
16GB Memory (RAM)
1TB PCIe SSD
14 0" Ultra HD 4K (3840x2160) Display
Approx 2 34 lbs

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VAIO S Laptop - 13.3" Intel i7-8550U | 8GB Memory | Windows 10 Pro | 512GB SSD

The VAIO S provides all the functionality that you could need in a business laptop including a full suite of connectivity ports and features. However the VAIO S is still incredibly thin (0.59 inch-0.70 inch) and impossibly light (2.34 pounds) while providing all day battery life.

Intel Core i7-8550U
8GB Memory (RAM)
512GB PCIe SSD
13.3" Full HD (1920x1080) Display
Approx. 2.34 lbs

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VAIO Z Laptop (Intel Core i5-6267U, 8GB Memory, 256GB SSD, Full HD Display, Windows 10 Home)

Leveraging a long history of creating compact products, VAIO engineers have miniaturized the motherboard by utilizing high density component placement. This engineering feat opens up additional space inside the VAIO notebooks for a larger battery and fans eliminating the need to enlarge the chassis. As a result, VAIO notebooks offer high performance without sacrificing battery life or portability.

Intel Core i5-6267U (4MB Cache, up to 3.30GHz)
8GB LPDDR3 1866MHz
256GB PCIe SSD
13.3" Full HD (1920x1080) Display
Up to 15 hr and 30 min*, Maximum Memory Capacity: 16 GB

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Sony VAIO T Series SVT13134CXS 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (1.9 GHz Intel Core i3-3227U Processor, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, Windows 8) Silver

Sleek, responsive performance and extreme mobility meets the power of a touchscreen. Designed without compromise, it’s the ultimate travel companion and workhorse for purely business or simply pleasure. With a brushed aluminum shell, the latest storage technologies and long battery life, the only thing missing is you behind it.

Intel Core i3-3227U Processor (1.9 GHz)
4 GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
13.3-Inch Screen, Intel HD Graphics 4000
Windows 8, 5-hour battery life

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Sony VAIO VGN-NW240F/T 15.5-Inch Brown Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium)

2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 Processor
4GB DDR2 800MHz Memory
320GB Serial ATA 5400RPM Hard Drive, DVD±R/RW Optical Drive
15.5" (1366x768) Widescreen LCD Display, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

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Sony VAIO SVF15A16CXB 15.5-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core i7-3537U Processor, 8 GB DDR3L, 1 TB HDD, 8GB SSD, Windows 8) Black

Say hello to the touchscreen laptop that's the perfect blend of features, speed and style. Smartly designed with a thin, aluminum body, you'll also be wowed with options like Full HD displays.

Intel Core i7 3537U 2.0 GHz
8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
1 TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive, 8 GB Solid-State Drive
15.5-Inch Touch Screen, Intel HD Graphics 4000
Windows 8

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Sony VAIO Fit 15E SVF15412CXB 15.5-Inch Laptop (1.7 GHz AMD A8-5545M Processor, 4GB DDR3L, 750GB HDD, Windows 8) Black

AMD A8-5545M Accelerated Processor 1.7 GHz
4 GB DDR3L SDRAM
750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.5-Inch Screen, AMD Radeon HD 8510G Graphics
Windows 8

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Sony VAIO Pro SVP1321ACXS 13-Inch Core i5 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Carbon Silver)

At just 2.34 lbs. the carbon fiber VAIO Pro 13 Ultrabook offers exceptional performance, a FULL HD TRILUMINOS Display for mobile with 10 point touchscreen, all day mobility in a sleek design. Get even longer battery life with the optional extended sheet battery. Equipped with a 4th generation Intel Core i5 processor, card and 4GB of memory, and with a high speed PCIe solid state drive the VAIO Pro is an ideal solution for your mobile computing needs.

Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6 GHz
4 GB DDR3
256 GB Solid-State Drive
13-Inch Touch-Enabled Screen
Windows 8

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE17137CXB 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Intel Core i7-3632QM Processor (2.2 GHz)
8 GB DDR3 RAM
1 TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
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Borjomi Mineral Water Park in Georgia

18 October, 2015 | Tourism objects | 175 seen

Borjomi mineral park which is located in town on Borjomi, some 120 km from nations capital Tbilisi, is a lovely place to enjoy a lazy day, preferable for slow walking and enjoying beautiful aroma coming from pine cons.

This park (and Borjomi town) has been on my most favorite destination list in Georgia for many years already (well, I first visited this place in 2011). This park was in our Borjomi hiking route, during our recent hiking tour organized by Georgia Expat Photographer Club. If you are a solo traveler or group of indies - here is a tip how to get to Borjomi for cheap - Tbilisi - Borjomi Transfer by Marshrutka (Minibus)

As a rule of thumb there is some small entrance fee for entering Borjomi Mineral Water park (some 0.5 GEL or 1.00 GEL), but during our hiking trip we enter this park from the other side and save up that money. So the pictures I will post bellow are from the other side of park.

Borjomula river in park

Waterfall and a monument in Borjomi Mineral Water Park

The is another interesting angle you can see this waterfall from above, but then you should take Borjomi Cable car, which is located just in the front before entrance gates of the park

Borjomi mineral water park

There are some attractions for kids available in Borjomi mineral water, like there ae a pirate ship, roller coasters and other.

Borjomi mineral water park

This probably the most famous place in Borjomi mineral water - a place were free Borjomi water comes out of the spring. Those arches are actually great for taking portraits.

Free Borjomi water from a tap

Compared to those ones you buy at a store, this one tastes strange, but you can use it for medical treatment instead of drinking this water.

Billboard in Georgian and English

Borjomi Mineral Water park

There is a free Wi-Fi available in parks territory, brought to us by Beeline. Read more how I once made a bank transfer here using my phone; Borjomi Short Trip - Roundup

Borjomi mineral water park

A lovely installation to make a selfie with

Golf cart for lazy ones

According to written on that A4 paper - it's 2GEL for a drive in park, and 4 GEL for a plateau. Lovely.

About Borjomi Mineral Water Park

Borjomi’s mineral water park occupies a narrow, wooded valley and is a lovely place to walk. This was where the original mineral spring was discovered, and named Yekaterinsky Spring after the governor’s daughter, who was cured here. The park itself dates from 1850. To reach it, cross the little Borjomula River just east of Borjomi Park station, turn right along 9 Aprili and go 600m. Warm mineral water flows from taps in a pavilion straight in front of the entrance (you can fill bottles with it). Most of the park’s facilities – cafes, funfair attractions, a cinema and a cable car (1 GEL each way) which will carry you up to a hilltop Ferris wheel – only operate from about late June to early September. If you walk about 3km upstream through the park, you’ll find a small, natural, spring-fed swimming pool with a constant temperature of about 27°C.

A second public mineral-water spring (this one cold) emerges inside a metal cage over the Borjomula River just outside the park: cross the footbridge opposite 9 Aprili 46, then go left for about 40m. The Borjomi bottling plants draw their water from other mineral springs – there are about 40 in the area.

Lawn Mowing with a Scythe

17 October, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 22 seen

Welcome to the second post in home remodeling series, today I will write about thing called - lawn mowing (I prefer using word grass) with a tool called scythe. It has been a while before my first post about our new property - a house, a really bad managed house we inherited. The thing why it took us so long is - it took us some 2 months to decide - will we seriously do anything with this house or probably let's just leave as it is and come back to Georgia or any other destination in the World?

After 2 months of intensive thinking, arriving on site (our house) everyday, drinking coffee on it's so called porch - we finally get a grip and decided - yes, let's do this, let's build our dream house. Although our minds were busy figuring out how to change a roof for this place, there was another obstacle - the grass.

Home front overgrown with grass

Ahh, those 2 months of us trying to figure out what should we do next were excellent time for grass to grow and overgrown.

A scythe

All we had at that time was pretty old but in working condition scythe and my childhood memories of remembering that I have seen this tool in action.

and we have a huge territory to move that grass

We barely can see our car parked at the end of the road

Did I just said a road? I cant see any road there! Ahh, it's just overgrown with grass.

First results of moving the grass

Looks much prettier,right?

Author of this blog captured in action - moving grass

The bottom line

Moving grass (lawn) with a scythe is a damn hard work to do. As one guy latter told me - buddy, it's 21st century and you just don't use scythe, there are other much modern tools to get rid of the grass.And he was right, but I must say - moving grass with scythe at our rural house just led me to fell in love with this house just more, after this lovely experience we stopped to doubt, do we really need this property. We just not only need, we must do our best to upkeep this place.

How To Make Nadugi - Traditional Georgian Snack (Fresh Cheese With Mint)

16 October, 2015 | Food blogger | 457 seen

When I first arrived to Georgia back in 2011, I was immediately taken to one of the lovely Tbilisi restaurants. Since I had no clue what so ever special of Georgian Cuisine I asked my friend could he suggest me some common and typical Georgian food? We ordered Ojakhuri and Nadugi.

When I first seen Nadugi I thought its form looks like cone of ice cream, and then my associative thinking turned on and I thought - strange they eat potatoes / meat stew together with ice cream? Then I tried that little snack and in next second I just felt in love with that small Georgian snack Nadugi.

Now I know - Nadugi is nothing related to ice cream - it's actually some kind of fresh cheese blended with mint and wrapped in thin Sulguni cheese plates

Nadugi is a snack in the shape of sacks, made of thin sulguni cheese flat cakes with the filling of nadugi, light milk product with a delicate taste of cream, and mint.

It was my blog's second anniversary when I was offered to prepare some special dish to celebrate this major milestone and choice was made in favor for nadugi. All ingredients were bought on local Tbilisi Dezerteer market (Bazroba).

Ingredients: 10 thin sulguni cheese plates, fresh mint, pomegranate, fresh cheese

Ingredients for Nadugi

Fresh mint, sulguni cheese plates and fresh cheese

Mix fresh cheese with mint

Take a pomegranate and divide it

Well this actually does not comes in original recipe, it's just a way I like my Nadugi served, with pomegranate seeds

Pomegranate seeds

Wrap that fresh cheese blended with mint into those sulguni cheese plates

Your Georgian style snack is ready and you can serve it.

Georgian traditional snack - nadugi

The Bottom line

Nadugi's are super easy to prepare, all you have to do - get those super special ingredients, you can get them either in Georgia, either by stopping nearby to your local Georgian community in your town/country.