Taglaura Restaurant on Tbilisi-Kojori street road

4 April, 2019 | Restaurant reviews | 28 seen

Taglaura is one of the most successful restaurant chains in Georgia owned by VD Capital group, the same group owns several other popular restaurant brands in Tbilisi and Georgia. 

The one I will talk about today is located on Tbilisi - Kojori street 10, and the best way to get here is by driving to Kojori. The same road from the downtown Tbilisi will take you to the Mtatsminda Amusement park

Now, this place serves typical Georgian cuisine in a bit tourist way. And seems they are manufacturing their own Georgian lemonade under Taglaura brand.

Georgian lemonade Taglaura

I can even read - on the left side it's written - "limoni" and the one with grapes on labeling it's said - "saperavi". Make sure to give them a try. Georgian lemonades are fantastic.

Schnitzel served with French fries

Now, this was one great schnitzel, almost as good as you can get in places like this.

The best, the schnitzel with French fries cost just GEL 11 (as of 2019)

Fried khinkali with soy sauce

They call them Asian style. Fried khinkali are really delicious. if you haven't tried yet - highly recommend!

At Taglaura's you have an opportunity to enjoy locally brewed beer,  bottled lemonade made out of fresh local fruits, bread baked in traditional tandoor, Kakhetian wine and many tasty Georgian  and not only Georgian samples of culinary.

March 2019 Dividend Income Report - $188.36

3 April, 2019 | Investments | 34 seen

Welcome to the twenty-third (#23) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in March 2019.

The last March was very exciting, it has not only beaten the previous year's March by quite impressive 256%, but it also was the first month I earned money from trading options.

Spring finally has come to Tbilisi and more time we want to spend outdoors, unfortunately not always it happens so. Hope to be more outdoors in April.

Blue snowdrops near Turtle lake in Tbilisi at early March

Learn more: Spring in Tbilisi (near Turtle lake)

Now, when speaking about the dividend income, the last March was very good, it turned out the second highest after July 2018.

$188.36 was taken from dividend stocks and peer to peer lending in March 2019. Additional $114 were made from options trading, but as options trading is not actually a dividend income, I won't include them here. 

Here are a few articles to learn more:

• Investment Goal #7 - Selling Puts to Own / Generate Income
• My First Option Trade: FTR Aug16'19 2 Put @0.45

As you can see, the last March has been really, really interesting. I remember March 2018 (a year ago) - it felt so bad, there was no dividend paying stocks back then in my portfolio. here is what I told a year ago:

March is finally over. The last March was really uncomfortable and in fact, it was the first month from my short investor experience when my total net worth actually decreased. Many things happened to my portfolio last month, in total, I lost about $3,000 in value for crypto investments...

Wow, what a ride this year. I still haven't recovered from huge loses with crypto's, but this March feels completely different than a year ago. And it is. 

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending website, by clicking on links on this page and by making an investment on mintos.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset. 

Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union or third countries currently considered to have AML/CFT systems equivalent to the EU, and have their identity successfully verified by Mintos. At the moment, US citizens or taxpayers cannot register as investors at Mintos.

Sign up for Mintos.com here. By using my affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of our average daily balance which should be paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days.

Interest income in March 2019

From the stocks, Mintos.com peer to peer lending and from cryptocurrency lending on Poloniex.com I got following income last month:

Ticker

Earnings

Mintos

€51.56

BGLF

€35.50

WPG

€16.65

XIN

€12.50

NHCBHFFT

€10.80

USA

€10.33

VTA

€8.70

EDF

€6.81

CLM

€5.44

EDI

€5.15

Poloniex

€1.73

Total: EUR 165.23 / USD 188.36

In total there were 11 great companies paying us dividends in March.

Mintos continues to be #1 in terms of interest income generated

Mintos.com Review After 24 Month of Investing in Peer to Peer Lending

The YoY growth rate for my dividend income in March 2019 was + 256.20%. or  $135.48 more than a year ago in March 2018. That's definitely is the growth rate I like, If I would manage to keep such rate for March 2020 - I would have then 188.36+ 135.48 = $323.84. Awesome. 

Now, I doubt I will get such high rate for March 2020, but a year is a long enough time to many interesting things to happen. At least it worked so for this year's March.

Monthly income to the date

My journey towards million dollars in savings account now is already 2 years old. The result, so far, looks quite good. Dividends are growing.

Monthly Income chart as of March 2019

The cumulative earnings for 2019 now are $446.32  which is exactly 21.82% from my goal of 2019 ($2,045). On average, it would ask me to generate $177.63 every month for the next 9 months to reach my goal.

Right, now I'm pretty confident reaching this goal, as there are already several months planned to have dividend income at the level of $200/mo.

2018 in Review and Financial Goals for 2019

Goals for March 2020

This is my favorite part of the reports - trying to forecast/set goals for the next year. But before setting a goal for 2020, let's see what I forecasted/said a year ago:

 It would be cool to reach $80/mo a year after. From today's perspective - hard, but doable. There are a few scenarios I'm considering now - one it would ask to boost my deposit on Mintos by about EUR 3,000 or I should start adding US dividend-paying stocks to the portfolio. I'm looking on both now.

Wow, I more than doubled my original goal set a year ago. indeed all It was asked was starting to add US dividend-paying stocks to the portfolio. 

When setting goals for March 2020, I will say - $250 is what I'm looking on. Looks quite possible. Should add more monthly/quarterly paying dividend stocks to get there.

Tbilisi for kids (17 Places to Visit)

1 April, 2019 | Travel guides | 112 seen

Shopping, eating ice cream, spending time outdoors or at cool amusement parks.

Tbilisi has a lot to offer for both grownups and their offsprings. Keep reading to find more about 17 kid-friendly places in Tbilisi

April 1st marks already the eighth anniversary since I've been living in Georgia. It was back on April 1st, 2011 I first put my foot on holy Georgian land.

During the past eight years, I've traveled across Georgia a lot, built a popular Tbilisi restaurants guide, documented my travels across the country, and so on. Also, I have become a father, and have switched the regular places I hang out to more kid-friendly places

To celebrate this little anniversary, I've decided to share 17 kid-friendly places in Tbilisi

Asureti / Elisabethtal

31 March, 2019 | Tourism objects | 196 seen

Asureti is an interesting village situated on the road Koda - Tetriskaro, some 45 km from Tbilisi in Georgia. 

Discovered by accident, while doing (trying to do) a trip to Ninotsminda (in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti)  in January 2019.

I had heard before about former German settlements here in Georgia from German expats in Tbilisi,  and in fact a couple of weeks ago we visited one such settlement area (Katharinenfeld) in Bolnisi (see Day trip to Bolnisi and nearby vicinity)

German style dwelling house in Asureti, Georgia

You can find many such style buildings in the region of Hesse in Germany, actually some time ago I had a chance to book an apartment in one such building in Gudensberg/ Germany, see Apartment Alte Pfarre in Gudensberg, Germany or Postcards from Germany

Now here is what I was able to find out about German history in Asureti:

The village was founded on 19 November 1818 by Caucasian Germans under the name Elisabethtal or Elisabeththal by 72 German immigrant families. The then civil governor chose this name because the foundation of the village fell on the day of St. Elizabeth. 

Street in Asureti

There are not many streets in Asureti, as the village is really tiny (just a couple of houses, from which most looked abandoned in 2019) and an Evangelical Lutheran Church at the of the street.

Evangelical Lutheran church in Asureti

The church is missing a bell tower, but some renovation/ reconstruction works were done in January 2019. It's said the church has been built in 1871. 

You can find really interesting historical photos from here on the Facebook page: Asureti / Elisabethtal

In 1857, 38 families left Elisabethtal after religious disputes and founded the village Alexanderhilf near Tsalka . Other German families from Elisabethtal settled in the village of Kotishi near Marabda.

Street in Asureti

In 2019 there were many abandoned / empty houses in Asureti village

After the annexation of the Democratic Republic of Georgia by Soviet Russia in 1921 Elisabethtal got the Georgian name Asureti. From 1932 to 1938 there was a collective farm ( collective farm ) Concordia in Asureti , which was very successful in viticulture and research into pest control. After the attack of the Wehrmacht on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the German inhabitants were deported in October 1941 to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

From Elisabethtal come the German ancestors of Nadezhda Alliluyeva , the wife of Josef Stalin.

Cinevilla Studio backlot

30 March, 2019 | Tourism objects | 20 seen

Cinevilla is a backlot in the Tukums Municipality in Slampe parish, Latvia, and was created for the outdoor shootings of the feature film Defenders of Riga.

It is the only backlot in Latvia, and consists of replicas of historical buildings and constructions of Riga, the capital of Latvia. The backlot has a small canal to resemble the Daugava river quays of the Riga old town. The Stone Bridge is also there as well as the historical Lübeck and Pontoon bridges.

I first visited lovely Cinevilla townlet at the end of June 2018 and was more than surprised of how realistic things are done here.

One of the many pavilions at Cinevilla 

There is a huge parking lot at film town and the entry fee inside the territory was something like EUR 3

at Cinevilla filmtown

Cinevilla is now a major tourist attraction and is the only such large-scale open-air cinema exhibition in the Baltic States. In 2008, Jānis Streičs shot the film Rudolf's Gold on the lot, simulating a Kurzeme farmstead.

Quite realistic mock-up 

Cinevilla is a unique tourist attraction in Latvia with an extensive organization of events, filming and entertainment options.

Poppies at Cinevilla

Filmtown Cinevilla Studio is the only open-air cinema in the Baltic States and the largest in Northern Europe.

Mock-up for Russian Revolution (1917)

Briefly about Filmtown:

150 hectares in total, large-scale scenery covers about 15 hectares, which consists of 3 main parts:
City – Riga; Suburb / Town – Pārdaugava; Rudolph Territory Complex;

Filmtown is the 4th Latvian city which has its own tram line

• Located close to the capital Riga, as well as other historical Latvian cities – Tukums, Talsi, Kuldiga, Liepaja
• Specializing in the early 20th century scenery (World War I and World War II)
• Two filming pavilions
• Vintage steam locomotive and passenger railcars
• 60 m long railway platform
•  River Daugava and three historic bridges
•  Church
•  Hotel “Hotel Cinevilla”

Mock-up for The Pagan King (Nameja gredzens)

Construction of the backlot began in 2004 for the shooting of the Defenders of Riga – a film about the freedom battles in 1919, when both the Germans and Russians were trying to annihilate the newly-independent Republic of Latvia, established just in November 1918. To date, several Latvian feature films have been shot at the backlot, including Rudolfs’ Gold, Dream Team 1935, and a number of foreign films.

My First Option Trade: FTR Aug16'19 2 Put @0.45

29 March, 2019 | Investments | 41 seen

Now, this is exciting - in the late evening of March 28th, 2019 (GMT) I made my first options trade (s).

To get to this point it took me a couple of months and a lot of reading, talking and watching YouTube videos. A huge learning curve and a lot of incomprehensible. Anyway - I just made it, my first options trade - probably really dumb, probably I will lose after all, but I feel very excited that at least I get it through.

Now, as you already can see from the title, here is what I did:

FTR Aug16'19 2 Put @0.45

What does it mean?

Investment Goal #7 - Selling Puts to Own / Generate Income

It means that I wrote (sell) a put option to buy FTR stock (X100) at $2 with expiry on August 16th, 2019. For that, I got paid $0.45 per share. Or $45. Also, I paid in a commission for this trade $2.40.

For me, It looks like a 22.5% yield in 142 days or 57.82%/year, now here is the bad news, the FTR stock is doing really bad lately, and there is really huge possibly that stock price will fall below $2 and I will be obligated to buy it. Now as I don't believe in this stock and I'm not looking to hold it long term, I should then quickly sell it off to keep this trade afloat. 

5-year historical price of FTR stock

The good news, the break-even price for this trade is $1.55. If things will go South I hope there will be buyers for this stock.

Investment Goal #7 - Selling Puts to Own Stock / Generate Income

28 March, 2019 | Investments | 9 seen

If 2017 I spent learning a lot about crypto investments, starting a simple buy and hold, swing trading, lending on Poloniex.com, and even building a custom Ethereum mining rig.

2018 was more about high-yielding US stocks.

Seems that for 2019 I have a new subject to explore - options trading.  Now, I have heard about options a lot in the past ... it's just I have never had any interest in them, as it has always seemed like a scam to me, now I'm not saying it's a scam, but I'm also not advocating for it, as I believe options just like crypto, stocks are a high-risk investment and theoretically, you could lose some or all of your money.

Instead, I have decided to make my first options trade to better educate myself and hopefully make some profit. I want to start with probably (IMHO) the easiest approach - selling puts against dividend stocks.

Here is actually a really good read from which I will take a few excerpts Why selling puts against dividend-paying stocks is a win-win strategy

Financial advisors of all sorts will tell you that options are very dangerous, you may lose money, it is a gamble, it is not for average investors, you shouldn’t trade options with your retirement money, and much more similar nonsense.

Mostly, people who are discouraging you from trading options have never traded options. They are just playing their old scratched record they have been taught at their last seminar.

If you understand the basics of options, and how you can make money using them, you will find out, that trading options are very easy, simple, and not risky at all. The best way to find out for yourself is to take a small trade and try it. If you do not want to commit your own cash trade in a paper money account first. I did it myself recently even after two years of trading I still use a paper money account to practice trading. My small account doesn’t allow me to trade as often as I wish, so for the rest of the time, I use a paper money account.

Now as in the case with crypto, I decided better once do it for real, than continue thinking what if.

As I already have Lynx Broker, I made sure to apply for options trading permission and additionally created a paper trading account just to get familiar with the process and experiment with a couple of strategies.

It's fun to note, that my first experience with trading actually comes from the crypto and not vice versa. 

Backtesting BTC/EXP RSI on Gekko Trading Bot

As I don't have a lot to invest, for my first options trade I decided to go with a "cheap" high-yielding NLY dividend stock (this stock has a dividend yield of about 10%). and is trading at $10

The ultimate goal is to have about $3,000 - $4,000 in cash for option trades by the end of 2019. 

If I would manage to have a 1.5% yield monthly that would be a very very good result for me now.

I Will start small, with $1,000 in April (that's why choosing NLY). If I will manage to take 20%/per year from option trades I will be very happy. If I will keep my $4,000 afloat - I still will be happy.

If I will lose some 500-1,000 I won't be so happy anymore, but I will have a good lesson. 

Georgia Projected GDP Forecast 2019 - 2023

26 March, 2019 | Living in Georgia | 10 seen

Wow, time flies, it has been already 5 years since I last time reviewed Georgia's GDP growth rates, back in 2013 I come up with a simple article: Georgia then, now, future

Here is what the International Monetary Fund projected for Georgia for 2018:

According to IMF, Georgian GDP will rise average 6% per year until 2018, and in 2018 it could be approx 21.81 bln USD

Georgia GDP Forecast 2014-2018

Although we don't yet have exact data for 2018 yet, it's believed that the GDP in Georgia was around 16,142 billion USD in 2018, in short, that's about 25% less than it was actually forecasted back in 2014.

Now, let's see what is forecast for the next 5 years (2019-2023) by the International Monetary Fund

Georgia GDP Forecast 2019-2023 (Data Source: List of countries by past and projected GDP (nominal)) 

According to the IMF, Georgian GDP (nominal) in 2023 could reach about 23,83 billion USD. Seems that IMF has used an average GDP growth rate at 8% annually. I would say these number looks a bit too high to me now,

As it turned out even those 6% annually IMF forecasted, turned out overoptimistic.  

Day trip to Sighnaghi and Back

24 March, 2019 | Travel guides | 13 seen

Day trips to Sighnaghi (or any other destination in the region of Kakheti, Georgia) are quite possible, in the past, I have already covered few routes to consider, like Day Trip to Kakheti in Georgia or Day trip to David Gareji monastery complex and Sighnaghi

In today's article, I'll share our route details and discoveries from the latest day trip to Sighnaghi on January 12, 2019 (it was my name day according to Latvian calendar). 

For longer travels to the region of Kakheti, consider: Best Hotels & Guesthouses in Sighnaghi, Georgia or Weekend trip to Telavi (Georgia) and Vicinity

We started this route at around 9 AM, left our apt in Tbilisi in our almost brand new VW Tuareg car, we bought a couple of weeks ago (Rustavi Auto Market (Buying a Car in Georgia)). First stop was Carrefour store located in East Point shopping mall, just to buy some food.

The road to Sighnaghi from Tbilisi takes little more than an hour, before actually driving inside the Sighnaghi town, there is a lovely Bodbe monastery located. After a short stop at the Bodbe monastery,  we drive to Sighnaghi.

We didn't actually spend a lot of time in Sighnaghi and left it after made little driving through the city. We drive back to Tbilisi and discovered some really cools sights on our way, like Chailuri fortress and what really impressed me - the Ninotsminda monastery complex.

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Jūrmala airport

23 March, 2019 | Airports | 19 seen

Jūrmala Airport (ICAO: EVJA) is an airport located 5 km (3 mi) in the Engure parish, Latvia, southeast of Tukums. The airport is located in the territory of the former army airfield.

All of the airport's technical infrastructure, runway and buildings are what was left of the former Soviet military Tukums air base, which was a spartan military airfield with a single long ramp and revetted area. The base was completely abandoned, but in 2010 the conversion of the base to a civil airport with passenger terminals started.

Main Terminal building at Jūrmala airport

As of Summer 2018, the airport is completely abandoned and kind of looks like a ghost airport. 

Bus stop waiting for passengers

There have been talks to attract low-cost air carriers like Rynair and Wizzair to Jūrnala airport. No luck so far. On the other hand could be as popular as Kutaisi airport in Georgia.

Airport museum

See: Motel Istros Aviaparkas

Interesting fact: Tukums airfield has been mentioned in historical sources since 1939 as a reserve military airfield of the USSR and a warehouse of the nuclear weapon.

Lenovo IdeaPad 330-15IKB (Geforce MX150) Laptop Review

21 March, 2019 | Gadget Reviews | 108 seen

Here, at our Tbilisi office, we just love Lenovo laptop computers. In today's gadget reviews series - business laptop computer from Lenovo - IdeaPad 330-15IKB with GeForce MX150 graphics card. 

About a year ago, I bought the earlier version of IdeaPad 320 series, see Lenovo Ideapad 320-15ISK (Intel Core i3) Laptop Review, as it was working good, there were no doubts to go with a little bit newer model a year later.

Alternatively, see HP ProBook 450 G5 (2RS04EA) Laptop Review

A laptop isn’t just a piece of electronics—it’s also an investment. That’s why Lenovo designed the Ideapad 330 with a special protective finish to guard against wear and tear, as well as rubber detailing on the bottom to maximize ventilation and extend component life.

Lenovo IdeaPad 330-15IKB

To make sure your Ideapad 330 serves you well into the future, Lenovo has made sure you can choose specs that will meet your evolving needs. Cutting-edge processing—up to 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7—and advanced discrete graphics options from AMD and NVIDIA® assure seamless multitasking, immersive gaming, fast boot-ups, and theater-like entertainment.

The model I bought comes with the latest 8th Gen Intel Core I3 processor, make sure to check out Top 20 8th Generation Intel Core i7 Processor Laptops

Lenovo IdeaPad 330-15IKB keyboard

Running out of battery and short on time? The Ideapad 330 boasts up to 6 hours’ battery life, and also supports Rapid Charge—15 minutes plugged in will give you up to 2 hours of use.

Lenovo IdeaPad 330-15IKB With Windows 10 installed

Leverage the best of Windows 10, with a new update packed with exciting features. The powerfully reimagined Photos app makes it easier—and more fun—to tell your story in video: add a soundtrack, use transitions, deploy 3D effects, and more. And sharing is quicker than ever, with intuitive settings that making it easier to instantly connect with the people you care about most.

Technical details

• Up to NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX1050
• Up to AMD Radeon™ 540
• Intel Integrated Graphics

• 15.6” FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS
• 15.6” HD (1366 x 768)

• 4 GB onboard DDR4 + 8 GB DIMM
• 4 GB onboard DDR4 + 4 GB DIMM
• 4 GB onboard DDR4 + 2 GB DIMM
• 16 GB DIMM
• 4 GB onboard DDR4
• 16 GB Intel® Optane™ (optional)

• 128 GB PCIe SSD
• 256 GB PCIe SSD
• 500 GB SATA HDD
• 1 TB SATA HDD
• 2 TB SATA HDD
• 128 GB PCIe SSD + 1 TB SATA HDD
• 256 GB PCIe SSD + 1 TB SATA HDD

• Standard keyboard
• Backlit numeric keyboard (optional)

• Platinum Grey
• Blizzard White
• Midnight Blue
• Chocolate
• Onyx Black

• USB Type-C 3.1
• 2 x USB 3.0 (one charging)
• HDMI
• 4-in-1 card reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC)
• Audio jack

Source: Ideapad 330 (15, Intel)

Top 10 Countries By Proven Natural Gas Reserves

20 March, 2019 | Macroeconomics | 62 seen

While I was waiting for a draft resolution from a natural gas distributing company listed on the stock market which shares I own, I decided to learn more about the topic - Natural gas, and one of the really interesting subjects to explore - Natural Gas Reserves by country.

But before getting straight to the numbers, let's find out more about Natural gas: Why it's important and what you need to know

As the world looks to diversify its energy mix one source, natural gas, is becoming increasingly important. 
The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that natural gas is viewed "as a good source of electricity supply" for a range of reasons.

According to the IEA, natural gas is seen as "lower carbon" relative to other fossil fuels. In addition, it takes around two years to build gas plants, which is seen as being relatively quick, while its share of the global energy mix is increasing at two percent annually until 2020.

TOP 10 countries with the largest reserves of Natural Gas by OPEC

TOP 10 countries with the largest reserves of Natural Gas (Data source: List of countries by natural gas proven reserves)

I guess it won't be a surprise to learn that natural gas is a very effective economic weapon and one of the largest battlefields are now located in the European Union:

In a move that should not surprise energy pundits nor even those that follow geopolitical news in Europe, on Thursday Russian gas giant Gazprom said it’s looking to gain an even larger gas market share in Europe following record-high 2018 exports, as it expects a decline in Europe’s gas output combined with rising demand. Last year Gazprom sold more than 200 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to Europe, including Turkey, while its gas market share in the region rose to more than a third, Reuters said in a report on the matter.

Russia has held a decades-old gas supply monopoly, dating back to the end of World War II, in Europe, putting it at a distinct geopolitical advantage over EU members, particularly Poland and the Baltic states. Moscow has also cut off gas supply during the middle of winter to make political statements in the past, upping the ante up for EU states dependent on Russian gas supply.

However, more EU member states are seeking to pivot away from Moscow’s gas supply grip by turning to more LNG, particularly U.S. sourced LNG. Other major EU players, particularly Germany, the EU’s largest economy, however, seems uncharacteristically naive about the dangers of over-reliance on Russian gas.

Berlin has approved and pushed ahead, amid heated backlash from Washington, the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Nord Stream 2 is a 759 mile (1,222 km) natural gas pipeline running on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russian gas fields to Germany, bypassing existing land routes over Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. It would double the existing Nord Stream pipeline’s current annual capacity of 55 bcm. However, the U.S. has long maintained that it posed a threat to European security, while the U.S. is a large part of safeguarding that security.  On January 29, German news agency DW reported, citing one of the project’s engineers, that the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline should be operational by November (2019)

Source: This Is Just The Beginning Of Europe’s Gas War

Map with TOP 10 countries with the largest reserves of Natural Gas

Now, there is one interesting country that intrigues me lately - Turkmenistan. In the past I have covered brief stories, see:

• Turkmenistan GDP 1990 - 2014

Currently, ranked #4 largest proves natural gas reserves in the World, there have been plans (more talks) to build Trans-Caspian pipeline

The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline is a proposed subsea pipeline between Türkmenbaşy in Turkmenistan, and Baku in Azerbaijan. According to some proposals it will also include a connection between the Tengiz Field in Kazakhstan, and Türkmenbaşy.The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project is purposed to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstanto European Union member countries, circumventing both Russia and Iran. It is also considered as a natural eastward extension of Southern Gas Corridor. This project attracts significant interest since it will connect vast Turkmen gas resources to major consumer geographies as Turkey and Europe.

It's very interesting to note, that Brussels and Tbilisi will finance the engineering of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project

The Trans/Caspian gas pipeline (illustration: Thomas Blomberg) 

The Trans/Caspian gas pipeline would run under the Caspian Sea from Türkmenbaşy to the Sangachal Terminal, where it would connect with the existing pipeline to Erzurum in Turkey, which in turn would be connected to the Southern Gas Corridor, thus taking natural gas from Turkmenistan to Central Europe.

Georgia and the European Commission have reached an agreement on joint financing of commercial engineering of the gas pipeline project on the Caspian sea bottom, which will connect Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

... the adviser to the Prime Minister of Georgia spoke on the approximate cost of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. According to him, the project is estimated at $1.5 billion, which is much less than the amount that experts expected 8-10 years ago. The fact is that over the years Turkmenistan has built the East-West pipeline from the gas fields in the area of the city of Mary to the coast of the Caspian sea. The Turkmen leadership said that it had invested $3 billion in this construction, which reduced the cost of the Trans-Caspian project, which previously included a pipeline through Turkmenistan.

According to the Georgian expert, banks and European companies will soon begin direct negotiations with Turkmenistan on the purchase and sale of gas. After the preparation of the documents, practical issues related to the construction of the pipeline will be put on the agenda.

Last, but not least - Huge natural gas reserves discovered in eastern Georgia

As noted in the report, On October 8, 2015, Frontera Resources company has announced its discovery of massive resources of gas in eastern Georgia. The company estimates natural gas resources to be 3.8 trillion cubic meters. 

’Provided the size of this large-scale discovery is confirmed independently, and geopolitical challenges are handled successfully, this means that Georgia, a low-middle-income country, could become a net exporter of gas rather than a net importer. The south Kakheti find can supply Turkey, Romania, Ukraine and European markets farther west. As these gas resources are brought to market, Georgia could export gas via a small-scale LNG terminal located on the Georgian Black Sea coast, or via the Main Export Pipeline to Turkey and TANAP’

Now, little has been heard lately about natural gas developments in Georgia, but still interesting.

Building GPU (Ethereum) Mining Rig from Scratch - Part 2 Assembling

19 March, 2019 | Servers | 39 seen

I originally built this mining rig back in December 2017 (during the golden days of crypto), I've unplugged this rig from electricity since September 2018, but I might turn it on again in 2019.

Today's article is the second and final part from the series I started back in 2017, see Building a 12 GPU Ethereum Mining Rig From Scratch - Part 1: Ordering Details

The total cost for this rig (4 GPU's with hashing power of about 60 MH/s) was about $1,300. I never break even. To do so ethereum should reach around $5,000 per coin (still hold minned ethereum) To Break Even My GPU Mining Rig, Ethereum Should Reach $5,153

With this rig, I've mined ethereum, expance and ethereum classic using simple mining OS

• How To Mine ETC (Ethereum Classic) with SimpleMining OS
• How To Mine EXP (Expanse) with SMOS

Before building my first mining rig I experimented a lot with mining at our office computer with cheap Radeon GPU, see Learning Crypto Currency Mining The Hard Way

The first package arrived at Georgia

In total it took me some 3 shipping to get all details, luckily I managed to get them all in about 3 weeks 

Power block, PCI risers, and SD drives

Accidently I got two SD drives

Motherboard, Graphics card and processor

The second shipment arrived

ASRock H110 PRO motherboard

Now, it's time to assemble it together

Installing processor

Mounting cooler a top on the processor

Adding 4gb RAM memory

Mounting GPU graphic cards

In above I have mounted EVGA 1060 6 GB and Sapphire TX 560 4GB

• Mining Ethereum With EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 (Single Fan), 6GB GDDR5 Review
• Mining with SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 Review

Despite I could mount up to 13 GPU's on this ASRock motherboard I never mounted more than 4.

Ethereum mining rig

Attached some old monitor for graphics interface, added a cheap keyboard. Connected to the internet via wire through the router. 

Ninotsminda Cathedral

17 March, 2019 | Churches and Monasteries | 13 seen

Ninotsminda Cathedral is located in the Ninotsminda village near Sagarejo, in the Kakheti region, Georgia.

Ninotsminda Cathedral is highly significant to the development of Georgian architecture as constructed in AD 575 it predates Jvari Monastery in Mtskheta, and served as a model for the development of the later tetraconch (four-apse) form.

I visited this cathedral first in January 2019 and was more than surprised on how much I enjoyed this place

Ninotsminda cathedral near Sagarejo in Georgia

The site is ruins today, with only the eastern apse and a portion of the western wall remaining. The ruined apse is decorated with 16th-century frescos of the Hodegetria, severely vandalized with bullet holes from Dagestani bandits in the 18th and 19th centuries. Outlines of the foundations indicate that the church originally had an octagonal center, surrounded by corner niches. Historical records indicate that restoration work was undertaken in the 10th and 11th centuries, and also during 1671 and 1774. However, the cathedral collapsed during earthquakes in 1824 and 1848 and was not reconstructed.

Bell-tower at Ninotsminda cathedral

The large brick belltower within the same complex dates from the reign of King Levan of Kakheti (1520-1574). The lower three stories served as a residence, each floor with a fireplace. The staggered placement of bricks on the exterior façade to form geometric patterns indicates the cultural influence of Safavid Persia, as does the pointed arch over the entrance.

Corner towers at Ninotsminda Cathedral

The Ninotsminda complex is surrounded by a fortification, with corner towers and a crenelated curtain wall, dating from the 16th-17th centuries. The fortified entrance gate has protruding towers with beehive machicolations.

The complex is currently operated as a nunnery by the Georgian Orthodox Church, and reconstruction work is underway.

Cafe / Bistro Dukāts

16 March, 2019 | Restaurant reviews | 19 seen

Cafe/bar/ bakery Dukāts is located in Dubulti, Jūrmala close to the Dubulti church. 

During 2018 we lived for a while next to the Dukāts and visited this place quite often to have a bistro style dinner or buying some delicious cake from the bakery. 

Compared to the other restaurants in Jūrmala, Dukāts has one of the lowest prices. Having dinner for two people for EUR 10 here is realistic. 

A meal at bistro Dukāts

Typical Latvian cuisine served at bistro Dukāts. 

Once in Dubulti make sure to visit Dukāts!