Roshen Candy Store in Kiev (Khotynska Street)

9 December, 2018 | Shopping Venues | 62 seen

Roshen Confectionery Corporation is a Ukrainian confectionery manufacturing group.

The leading manufacturer of confectionery products in the country, it operates facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Kiev, Vinnytsia and Kremenchuk, as well as in Budapest, Hungary and Klaipėda, Lithuania. The name of the company was derived from the last name of its owner, current president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko.

It was back in August 2017, we were in Kiev to celebrate my birthday when we discovered this lovely candy store.

Roshen Candy store in Kiev

If I remember right, this one is located on Khotynska St, 2

At Roshen candy store

Pet Food Store in Tbilisi - Zoomart on Abashidze street (near Vake park)

8 December, 2018 | Shopping Venues | 25 seen

Zoomart on Abashidze street 78  (located very conveniently close to the Vake park) has been our favorite pet food store (actually the only one) for several years already. We came here regularly to buy special cats dry food. 

According to Zoomart website, there are already 11 stores across Tbilisi (2018). 

At Zoomart you will find brands like Canvit, ferplast, Vitakraft, Brekkies, catzone, elmubas, Versele-Laga, Advance, Kong, Acana, Morando, Animology  e.t.c

Together with Natia Beridze Veterinary, these are two of the pet-related places I'm familiar with in Tbilisi

Top 16 Best Luxury 5-star SPA hotels in Milan city center

7 December, 2018 | Hotel reviews | 44 seen

Milan is the world' s fashion capital, so there is no surprise seeing high-end hotels located in the city center.

I've been once in Milan, back then we chose to stay at a hotel close to the Milan-Malpensa airport and chose Holiday Inn Express Milan-Malpensa Airport Hotel (Case Nuove, Italy),  as we traveled from Milan to Venice then Florence and back to Milan. For a complete travel route, please see ​My Italy Travel Guide.

For a luxury stay in the Milan city center, you should be willing to pay EUR 150 - 850 per night. Continue reading to find out the best luxury 5-star hotels in Milan

Milan is the world’s fashion capital and its stores are packed with Italian designer brands and more. T

he super stylish Milanese shop for haute couture at top prices – but also enjoy unbeatable sales! Go past the consumerism and you’ll discover a city with a modern edge and urban sophistication. Go crazy when football season kicks off at San Siro, or explore the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in April – the largest furniture and design exhibition in the world.

Start your day under the towering Duomo Cathedral, take a…

IWA Christmas Charity Fair Tbilisi 2018

6 December, 2018 | Living in Georgia | 7 seen

Annual Winter Fair (Christmas charity fair) was held at Tbilisi's Radisson Blue Hotel on December 1, 2018

For many expats in Georgia, it has been already a tradition to visit this fair year. For me, this was already some sixth or seventh fair (as a visitor), maybe I should start selling hot wine in the next years (who knows)

Here are a few articles from the past: Christmas Charity Fair Tbilisi 2017, Christmas Charity Winter Fair in Tbilisi 2015, Christmas Charity Winter Fair in Tbilisi Sheraton Hotel, Christmas charity fair in Tbilisi

As usual, I took my DSLR camera, backpack and went shopping (this year was special, as it was the first fair for our little daughter).

Fair is a great place to buy great things and let's believe to help charity, as all earnings made during this fair is believed to be donated to charity.  It should, after all. Winter fair was organized by International Women's Association Georgia (IWAG)

Kid books at British embassy stand

Bought a few reading books for the little fella. 

Candles for sale at…

November 2018 Dividend Income Report - $111.60

5 December, 2018 | Investments | 15 seen

Welcome to the nineteenth (#19) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in November 2018. 

In case you are wondering why I'm sharing online my earnings - the answer is pretty simple -  back in January 2017, I set a goal to reach one million dollars in my bank account by the time I will turn 60 (27, 26 years still to go). I believe in transparency and sharing dividend income reports every month helps me to observe my personal progress or bounces. Hopefully, those reports can give some inspiration to you as well. (If so, please leave a short comment below).

In short, last November was neither good nor bad, I managed to crack $100/mo milestone, and I hope I will never be under $100/mo. Anyhow last month dividend income doesn't impress me at all. That's how it works I believe. Greed. Greed is good!

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending website, by clicking on links on this page…

Documentary "Inside Mao's China"

4 December, 2018 | Documentaries | 12 seen

A very interesting film by Martin Gronemeyer, telling a story about foreign expats in China during the cultural revolution.

The film tells a unique personal story combined with rare historical footage give a new perspective on Mao’s utopia. 

At the height of Maoism, China was as closed off as present-day North Korea. Then as China eased out of its age of isolation in the early 1970's, Westerners equipped with government regulated narratives began to romanticize the new government. Only a small group of Westerners who grew up and lived inside Mao’s China witnessed first-hand the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. Until now they had preferred to remain silent but armed with a new outlook on life they are committed to sharing their experiences without fear.

When the Westerners were finally granted permission to leave, they were shocked to find their peers in Europe cheering for the very dictator they had just fled. In this time young leftist activists In Western Europe idolized Mao as a harbinger of a utopian society. However, many Western Maoists who journeyed to China to enjoy the revolutionary tours often returned disillusioned or confused.…

Top Hotels in Liepāja, Latvia

30 November, 2018 | Hotel reviews | 9 seen

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.

Europa City Amrita Hotel is located in the center of the town Liepāja, in Latvia’s Kurzeme region. The 4-star hotel offers rooms with a flat-screen TV with cable channels, a mini-bar and a private bathroom. Free private parking is available for hotel guests.

The rooms of the Amrita Hotel feature an elegant interior design with wooden furniture, which includes a work desk and a wardrobe.

The hotel’s staff is available 24 hours a day. The Amrita provides a shuttle service. Guests can rent a car directly at the hotel.

The hotel’s restaurant, Oskars, serves international and Latvian dishes. Grill bar Bruno serves barbecue dishes. In the morning a breakfast…

How To Install XTRF 8 on Ubuntu 18.04

29 November, 2018 | Servers | 45 seen

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 (Debian). For the latest version, I decided to go with the same VPS from Linode (to make it work I chose 8GB RAM Linode), but instead of Debian, i opted for the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS release.

Insert the following line into the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

then

Run the command to insert XTRF package signing key into the database:

Enter the following command:  

Run the following command 

To start…

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

28 November, 2018 | Documentaries | 12 seen

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

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

27 November, 2018 | Documentaries | 4 seen

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 huge nation, which is beset by rural poverty, major infrastructure challenges and environmental crises, able to realize his vision?

Phoebe Greenwood from the Guardian travels to the Kazakh capital, Astana, and the Aral Sea region

Watch on YouTube

Tbilisi TV Tower in the National colors of Latvia

25 November, 2018 | | 2 seen

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!

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

24 November, 2018 | Gadget Reviews | 37 seen

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 I found Samsung Smart Switch app, which seems works not only for the phone to phone file transfer but also for the phone to pc and phone to Mac file transfer. Amazing.

Transferring files from broken to new Galaxy phone

- Galaxy S7/S8/Note8/S9/Note9 owners: Tap [Settings] > [Cloud and accounts] > [Smart Switch] to open Smart Switch Mobile.
* Smart Switch Mobile is already preloaded on Galaxy S7/S8/Note8/S9/Note9 device. 

▣ Smart Switch gives you the freedom to move your contacts, music, photos, calendar, text messages, device settings and more to your new Galaxy device. Plus, Smart Switch™ helps you find your favorite apps or suggest similar ones on Google Play™. 
…

Samsung Galaxy A6 32GB (2018) Review

23 November, 2018 | Gadget Reviews | 20 seen

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 phone during Black Friday sale in Georgia (Tbilisi) at AltaOk store in Eastpoint. The sales price was GEL 599 ($225.61), and it said it's discount from GEL 749 ($282.11). Though on Amazon you can get brand new unlocked Samsung Galaxy A6 phone for $214.99

Samsung Galaxy A6 sealed and sold in Georgia

The model we bought today in Georgia, seems is manufactured for the market of Russia and CIS, thus there is an international version available (I'm bad at gadget model numbers).

Samsung Galaxy A6 unpacked

Here is what comes out of the box - a phone, USB cable, and an electrical cable for faster charger, earphones and a special pin to remove sim card…

Ordering Goodies From Amazon - Baby Play Mat and more

21 November, 2018 | Laptop Reviews | 12 seen

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 guess their actual names in this photo post.

Goodies delivered to our Tbilisi apt

Very neat shopping, and actually pretty fast - our order was fulfilled (since ordering online) in about a week (delivered to doors in Georgia)

Goodies for baby

Play mat, water mat, and socks for crawling

Play mat installed

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

20 November, 2018 | Investments | 13 seen

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 anywhere else this year, I'm not too concerned regarding this. 

In fact, it has been a while since I bought my latest Baltic stock, in 2018 I'm more focusing in the US stock market, see: Dow Jones Companies By Yield 2018

Also see: Top Dividend Paying Stocks In Nasdaq Baltic I'm Planning to Acquire in 2018

Now, when planning investments for 2019 in Nasdaq Baltics, I did a simple research, based on historical data and my own experience to list stocks I'm looking to acquire next year. 

Please remember: your capital is at risk when investing in stocks and you could…