Blog Archive: November 2018

Hotel reviews

Top Hotels in Liepāja, Latvia

As a frequent guest to Liepāja, I decided to list top hotels found in the city.

So far I have stayed at two great Liepāja hotels: Hotel Fontaine Royal Review In Liepāja and Europa City Amrita Hotel Review in Liepāja

Disclosure: hotels listed below contain links to Booking.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a reservation on Booking.com site, I might earn an affiliate income, at no cost to you…

Drupal & Servers

How To Install XTRF 8 on Ubuntu 18.04

XTRF is a Polish translation management system available to install as SAAS or on your own server (both Windows and Linux). In today's article, I will keep notes on how to install XTRF 8 on Ubuntu 18.04

Our company has been using the XTRF translation management system since 2011 (if not earlier) and recently we opted for a major upgrade (from version 2 to version 8). The previous version was run on Linode VPS (…

Personal

Documentary about The Winter War 1939 (Soviet Union vs Finland )

A very well documented documentary about the Winter War fought back in 1939. About defensive war and great guerilla tactics to fight a more powerful army.


The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, and ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940.


Watch it on YouTube

Personal

Documentary about Kazakhstan: The new green superpower? Oil giant tries to wean itself off the black stuff

An interesting documentary from the Guardian. About Solar panels, renewable and green energy. Kazakhstan should be on every investor radar.

See also: Invest in Kazakhstan - Peer to Peer lending loans up to 21% Yield from Kredit24 on Mintos.com Marketplace


Kazakhstan is rich with oil, gas, and coal but Nursultan Nazarbayev, its president for life, has committed the country to a dramatic shift from fossil fuels to green energy. Is this…

Tbilisi TV Tower in the National colors of Latvia

The Tbilisi TV tower was lit in the Latvian nation colors on November 18th, 2018, to celebrate a 100 year anniversary since the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed on November 18, 1918

As I had the great observation point I made a quick long exposure and decided to share it via Piece of Life series.



Tbilisi TV tower in the national colors of Latvia

Happy birthday Latvia!

Gadget Reviews

How To Sync Files Between Samsung Galaxy Phones (Smart Switch)

Samsung Smart Switch seamlessly transfers contacts, photos, music, videos, messages, notes, calendars and more to virtually any Samsung Galaxy device.

After we bought a new Samsung Galaxy A6 phone I thought it will be a pain to transfer files from the old and broken Samsung Galaxy A3, as I thought it will involve cables or at least a lot of e-mailing files and folders (not the best backup, right?)

Huge was my surprise and excitement after…

Gadget Reviews

Samsung Galaxy A6 32GB (2018) Review

Samsung Galaxy A6 was first released in May 2018. We bought it as the replacement phone for Samsung Galaxy A3, to whom glass cracked on the rocks in Georgia (in the yard of Iosebis Duqani) while we traveled to the region of Kakheti.

As the repair cost was about the half price of a new one, we decided to go for a brand new and more powerful phone.

2 year lifetime is good for a phone, at least that's what I believe so.

Bought this…

Laptop Reviews

Ordering Goodies From Amazon - Baby Play Mat and more

It has been a while since I made my first international Amazon delivery to Georgia, using parcel delivery and forwarding service USA2Georgia. See how I ordered and installed new hinges for my old HP laptop back in 2014. 

How To Order Goodies From US to Georgia - Usa2Georgia.com

At the end of 2018 we ordered some goodies for our little baby girl - unfortunately, I haven't saved exact names for the items, so I will try to…

Investing

Top Dividend Paying Stocks from Nasdaq Baltic I'm Planning to Acquire in 2019

I've been investing in the Baltic equity market since April 2017, currently (2018) my capital has been exposed to 16 companies listed on the Nasdaq Baltic stock exchange giving a combined dividend yield (after two years) on cost 7.99%.

On the other hand, the total value for my Baltic holdings has been down -21.56% (without dividends) and -9.76% (with dividends). The drop has happened in 2018. As there have been drops…

Drupal & Servers

Drupal 7 Rules: Send E-mail to User Referenced by NID After Saving Content

A time ago I started to work on a custom Drupal powered translation management system, unfortunately as I didn't have much spare time and actually there are really great alternatives (paid) out there - I decided to postpone this project.

Despite the project wasn't actively developed, it was though running a separate Linode VPS for it (which costs money), I decided to delete this instance to save money, but before that, I decided…

Personal

Documentary "The Black August. Default" About Russia's Financial Crisis in 1998

20 years ago, Russia experienced one of the most devastating crises in its recent history — on 17 August 1998 the government defaulted. 

Today I watched an interesting documentary in Russian - Черный август. Дефолт, documentary tells about events and causes which led to the default.

What really caught my attention was the GKO, or  Государственное Краткосрочное Обязательство

GKO are short-term zero-…

Living in Georgia

Rainy Day in Tbilisi

Less than a month ago, we changed apartment in Tbilisi and got one with really cool views towards mount Mtatsminda.

I've been playing with a tripod a camera here ever since. See: Tbilisi by night (New apartment version) and Tbilisi by day (New Apartment Version)

Despite my forecast, that next version probably will be an HDR photography, it turned out to be a Rainy day. Actually, about a year and a half ago, I made a cool time-lapse…

Trinity Monastery of St. Jonas in Kyiv

The Trinity Monastery of St. Jonas is a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery in the Kievan neighborhood of Zverinets, a short distance from the medieval Vydubychi Monastery.

We discovered this monastery back in 2017 when visited Hryshko National Botanical Garden



Trinity Monastery of St. Jonas

It was Jonas, a Vydubychi hegumen, who founded this monastery in 1864. Princess Vasilchikov, the widow…

Postcards from Mtskheta 2

Mtskheta is a small and lovely town located some 20 km from nation' s capital Tbilisi. Some will find a lot of similarities in Mtskheta with the town of Sighanghi, while others will enjoy architectural and religious pearls of Mtskheta. Svetitskhoveli church, Jvari monastery or Samtavro are just a few to name. 

In today' s Piece of Life series - Mtskheta as we saw it in early November 2018 (…

Hotel reviews

Top 5 Luxury & Spa Hotels in Kvareli, Georgia

Here are the top 3 reasons to visit and stay in Kvareli - health spas, culturally diverse food & beautiful forests.

Kvareli is one of the most popular SPA hotel destinations in Georgia, or at least in the region of Kakheti.

I've stayed in several hotels in or near the town of Kakheti. With Royal Batoni being my favorite so far.

In today's article, I've listed top 5 Luxury & SPA hotels in Kvareli,…

Travel

Hryshko National Botanical Garden in Kiev

Turns out there are at least two botanical gardens in Kiev. In today's article, I will write and provide photographs from Hryshko National Botanical Garden taken back in Summer 2017.

Apparently, we got here by a taxi from our hotel (Hotel Ukraine), and as far as I remember we got back to the city center by trolleybus. 

The M. M. Hryshko National Botanical Garden is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.…

Shio-Mgvime monastery

The Shio-Mgvime monastery is a medieval monastic complex in Georgia, near the town of Mtskheta. It is located in a narrow limestone canyon on the northern bank of the Kura River, some 30 km from Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.

It took me more than seven years since I've been living in Georgia and  60 GEL to get here.

Long story short: At the start of November 2018, we booked a 4-star hotel Gino Wellness in…

Hotel reviews

Hotel Gino Wellness Mtskheta Review

There are at least two Gino Wellness hotels in Georgia (probably more), one is located in the Rabati Fortress in the town of Akhaltsikhe and the other one is located really close to Tbilisi, in Mtskheta. In today's article, I will speak about the one in Mtskheta.

Offering free WiFi, a sun terrace with a swimming pool, spa and wellness center and garden, Hotel Gino Wellness Mtskheta is located in Mtskheta. Each accommodation at…

Investing

October 2018 Dividend Income Report - $168.10

Welcome to the eighteenth (#18) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in October 2018. In case you are wondering why I'm sharing online my earnings - the answer is pretty simple - I like transparency and these reports help me to observe my progress or bounces. Hopefully, my reports can…

Living in Georgia

Halloween 2018

Halloween 2018, was celebrated on Wednesday, October 31.This was our first Halloween together with our newborn baby and we made some really cool photos and video's in our new Tbilisi apt.But as each year,it's all about carving the pumpkin and having a lot of fun.How To Carve a Pumpkin and Make Stunning Halloween PhotosHalloween pumpkin 2018I bought this one at local Tbilisi market and paid 9GEL for it (2 gel/kg). Turns out this was a 4…

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