Blog Archive: March 2016
Building a Dog house
| DIY | 11 seen
Recently we inherited not only a bad managed rural house, but also got a German shepherd dog Bob. I have posted a lot about our home remodeling works, and in one article you can see Bob.
Bob is very scared dog, he doesn't trust people, as his owner passed away, he haven't approached any people, even me. After a summer spent in our rural house, the best we could achieve - Bob laying in front of house and observing us. We feed Bob well and during our absence we have negotiated good people to help us out to take care of Bob, thus Bob doesn't approves any help, just a daily dose of dog food.
The real owner of our house is Bob. To make at least some better life conditions for our stubborn Bob, I decided to build a dog house for him, here is how:
Base for a doghouse
The pallet is ideal for base, by nailing additional planks I was able to shape the basic concept of doghouse
Chainsaw
With help of chainsaw I was able to saw up the edges (Gosh, after a few months of rebuilding our house I'm not afraid of chainsaw anymore)
Roof for a doghouse…
Shooting Hanheld HDR Photography
| Digital Photography School | 6 seen
As some of you already know lately I'm a lot into HDR photography. For most of the times I'm shooting from a tripod, but sometimes (just sometimes) I'm lazy enough to take tripod with me. In most cases I end up damning myself for not taking tripod this time and most often avoid HDR shooting. Also in a lot of popular tourist spots (churches,cathedrals) it's forbidden to use a tripod - so you are left with handheld and no flashlight photography.
Thus, that doesn't mean you cannot shoot HDR without a tripod, you can actually make really striking HDR photography handheld. You don't need flash neither.
Here’s a three-exposure shot with bracketing set to +/- 2 increment.
Canon Rebel T5 with kit 18-55mm lens f/11 three brackets merged with Photomatix, ISO 100
A few months ago I did a similar HDR photography but with a tripod - the scene was pretty much the same - some interesting architectural element, blue sky and cool clouds.
Here is how I did above shot handheld:
Otium Restaurant in Tbilisi
| Restaurant reviews | 37 seen
Otium restaurant is a very stylish, but what's interesting not at all expensive venue, located in neighborhood of Vake in Tbilisi (uphill on the Turtle lake road).
I have dozen of times passed by this restaurant during some of mine hiking trips around here (See: Hiking in Tbilisi - Turtle lake (Kus Tba) - Vake Park) but I always refused to visit it, because I thought it should be out of my league (all those SUV cars parked in front of the entrance, with CD number plates). I usually avoid too much extravagant places, but I was wrong - I really enjoyed Otium restaurant, and as said - I was surprised of relatively low price for their lunch menu.
In short - Otium rocks, their lunch menu offer is high end restaurant meal for budget price
Entrance doors at Otium restaurant in Tbilisi
Yup, that huge red/mirror construction is actually an entrance doors and stairways down to the Otium kingdom. I remember a few years ago, when construction works were held at this site, I was a bit pissed of, because down there was an abandoned garden from which I took a hike just inside the Vake park.
Probably that's…
Invest in Georgia - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending - Mintos.com
| Living in Georgia | 18 seen
After almost five years spent as an ex-pat and passive investor (savings accounts only) in Republic of Georgia, time after time I'm looking for some other liquid investment opportunities in Georgia. Mostly I end up with stock exchange, but for now Georgian Stock Exchange market doesn't seems transparent enough and easy accessible.
By saying - not enough transparent I mean - I haven't find yet a broker offering real-time stats.
Time after time I end up in official Invest in Georgia website www.investingeorgia.org, there are good information provided for investment opportunities in this country. If you have spare few millions you might end up investing in energy, hospitality & real estate, manufacturing, logistics or agriculture & food processing. If you still feel you don't have such much money and you call yourself a small investor with funds less than $10,000 to invest in this gorgeous country - you are left with savings accounts or opening your small business. And this is what I would recommend - a small business. That's what I'm doing here - I'm a freelance programmer working 80% overseas. …
The Roof Works are Done (Almost)
| Home Remodeling | 7 seen
That August, 2015 day was a huge day - we finished roof covering works in our rural country house. It took us about a month as we launched roofing works, and it will take us few more days to complete roofing completely.
I didn't photographed today much, or day before (when most covering were done), in fact I didn't photographed at all, my better part did. Here is what we got:
Almost done here
Just three more roof plates (int total for both sides its 26 plates) and the large roof works are officially done
Couple of hours latter
Its done!
Few more bolts
Now, its time to add roof ridge, wind boards and chimney ridge. More on that in upcoming posts in home remodeling.
Aerial photos from rooftop
| Home Remodeling | 4 seen
Today we continued covering roof with metal plates, in a short break I took my DSRL camera a top on the roof and made some aerial photos.
You won't get here views as nice as you could get from Tbilisi or Batumi aerial trams, but taking into consideration that we are speaking of an old rural house - these views are as much great.
Roof masters a top on the roof (Edgars and Guntars)
Aerial view to our veggie garden
Few months ago we planted some goodies in the wooden boxes - and look what a harvest we have. Yes the new roof cover looks great as well.
Skewed barn
One day I will fix this too
At the edge of roof
view towards apple orchard
Intelligentsia Coffee Bar Tbilisi
| Restaurant reviews | 67 seen
I have spent countless hours at Intelligentsia Coffee Bar near Turtle lake in Tbilisi - this place has been my offsite office in hot Summer days (see: Turtle lake - my working place for today) or starting point before taking a hike (see: Hiking in Tbilisi - Turtle lake (Kus Tba) - Vake Park)
As the name of this place stats - it's a coffee bar, but you can order delicious meal here as well, starting Panini ending French fries.
Intelligentsia Coffee Bar near Turtle lake
Stylish interior
Coffee bar Intelligentsia is a super place whether just to chill out or take your laptop with you and work.
Cozy sofa and great view towards Turtle lake
Azerbaijani Restaurant Agha in Tbilisi
| Restaurant reviews | 152 seen
Azerbaijani cuisine restaurant Agha is located near Heroes square (access is from the Circus side) in Tbilisi. After a meal here - I'm already planing my next trip to the land of fire - Azerbaijan. At this restaurant I tried something new for me - Dushbara soup, piti soup and veal saji on Fire.
Lately I have tried a lot new non-Georgian cuisine places in Tbilisi, see Turkish restaurant Karabak, Chinese restaurant Dzin Chao or French Tartine Brasserie are just a few to name, now it was time for Azerbaijani cuisine. Thus this is not the first time I'm visiting Azerbaijani restaurant, I have tried Shirhan in Riga. But speaking of Shirhan, sorry - I cannot even compare you to this place. Restaurant Agha is out of any league (Perhaps just in Azerbaijan I will found something better)
Entrance doors at Restaurant Aga in Tbilisi
Before restaurant Aga moved in here, there was a Russian cuisine restaurant - Matreshka. The inside log house interior and menu with Matreshka logo's will remind you the history of this place.
Inside interior
As it is not rare here in Tbilisi and I have already been use to…
How To Change a Flat Car Tire
| DIY | 11 seen
Last summer I learnt not only how to change a roof for old rural house, also I excelled as a tire guy. During last summer I changed tires for our old junk car at least six times.
To this day I still don't know why we got so many flat tires (most probably, because I bought cheap used tires at local tire workshop). Anyhow, it was the next morning after we added first metal roof plates a top of our house, when I noticed a flat tire has happened again (without any reason). I was already equipped with leg pump (and luckily I had bought a spare tire just some few days ago)
N.B. By living in rural area - a spare tire, tools and basic know how is required to survive.
at first I pumped in some air into the tire
jacking up car
make sure you are on the flat surface and most recommended on hard soil as well. I had a problems with soft soil, so I used additional bricks just in the case if jack will lean or fall apart.
you can use a spare tire also as an emergency safety net
More experienced drivers taught me to put spare tire under car while removing flat tire.
…Roof Works, Part 6 - Finishing lathing and adding first plates of metal roof
| Home Remodeling | 8 seen
Today was a big day, we managed not only to finish lathing works, covered roof with cross wind sheet but actually installed two plates of metal roof.
Today was a very long working day also, by now I feel excelled a lot if roof works and home renovation.
We started early in the morning (around 7:30 AM) as I knew this will be a very long day, and I really wanted to start cover roof with metal plates.
Construction workers stretching cross wind sheet
I hired two local craftsmen to help me out in roofing works - the most awesome guys I have met so far.
Improvised outdoor workshop
While guys were on the roof, I was sawing laths from the ground. Synchronized teamwork.
Leisure time
We had a lot of fun today, many jokes (black jokes). I will remember these days as one of the most fun (you can have fun doing some hard work). Thank you Edgars and Guntars, you are such an amazing guys!
Roof works
...still lathing
Sawing laths with chain saw
This was the fun part - to saw up the ends of laths covering the edge of roof.
…
Dzin Chao Chinese Restaurant in Tbilisi
| Restaurant reviews | 63 seen
Dzin Chao is among my latest discoveries from Tbilisi restaurants. I discovered it after paid a visit to Tbilisi zoo, its actually located just at the front of entrance into Zoo.
Now I know at least three Chinese restaurants in Tbilisi, see: Oriental Pearl and New Asia
Dzin Chao restaurant interior
Spacious premises, I believe you can throw your next meeting with pals here with ease. As a pleasant surprise we got a gift - a large teapot with green tea for free.It's great, because it's rare to get green tea in Tbilisi, and if, then such pot will cost some 7-12 GEL. Here you get it for free.
Menu at Dzin Chao in Tbilisi
Pretty much the usual stuff you can get at Chinese restaurants. For some reason prices seemed a bit lower than it two other restaurants I mentioned above. Probably that is because of this restaurant is fairly new (as I was told opened just in October 2015)
Sweet egg and corn soup
Shredded beef in sweet and spicy sauce
The Bottom LineDzin Chao Chinese restaurant in Tbilisi rocks! We paid about GEL 50 for a meal for two persons. Atmosphere is great. Worth…
Tbilisi Zoo
| Tourism objects | 26 seen
Tbilisi has many cool tourist attraction sites, but there is one, which is rarely mentioned in official guides or Tbilisi reviews - meet the hidden pearl of nations capital - Tbilisi Zoo.
On the other hand worldwide coverage Tbilisi Zoo got after Tbilisi floods on 14 June 2015, leaving many animals dead or on the loose. See: Zoo animals on the loose and deaths feared after Georgia floods
Tbilisi Zoo is located in the Vere valley just next to the Heroes square. There is a symbolic 2 GEL entrance fee in Zoo's territory. In park there some additional attractions for kids, like Ferris wheel and other carrousels. There is a terrarium with separate 1GEL ticket for amphibian lovers.
Peacocks at Tbilisi Zoo
The Tbilisi Zoo was established on 1927. It was designed by a group of Georgian and Russian specialists. The Zoo was further expanded in the 1930s. At its heyday in the 1970s, the Tbilisi Zoo was home to more than 1,000 animals and enjoyed more than 500,000 visitors per year. The Zoo, largely depending on dwindling funding allocated from the city budget, went into decay as a corollary…
My Italy Travel Guide
| Travel guides | 8 seen
This is a roundup post listing places from our latest trip to Italy at the end of 2015 / start 2016.
The idea to visit Italy born in our Tbilisi apartment's kitchen when I was preparing another homemade pizza, I was flattening pizza dough with a rolling pin, when the better part of me told - hey, let's go to Italy.
And so we did. After about a month we were sitting on a plane Tbilisi - Milan. We hadn't special plans or ideas what to visit. We just drove around.
I did a lot of photography, as I was eager to apply my newly developed photographer skills. Italy definitely is a photographer's paradise.
Our total cost for this trip was about EUR 2,500, we stayed at decent hotels, drove a rental car and ate at fancy Italian restaurants (osterias). Thus we managed to spend half of that on our trip to Spain, I don't regret a euro cent spent here.
About FireFly Car Rental in Italy
| Professional services | 22 seen
Searching for a budget friendly car rental in Italy? Look no more - I can highly suggest FireFly car rental. We used Firefly during our recent week long trip in Italy, prior to that I have used FireFly Spain (see: My Spain and Andorra Travel guide).
We booked our economy Volkswagen Polo car online and picked it up at Milan-Malpensa airport (you must call to FireFly office upon arrival, after then they will send a shuttle bus to pick you up and will take you to the office, our case it was located in town of Case Nuovo).
Unfortunately we hadn't roaming enabled, so our phones were useless at this stage. After some 10 minutes wandering at the Terminal 1 exit in Milan-Malpensa airport what to do next, I approached some Swiss guy (I didn't know he is a Swiss before approached) and asked could I use his phone to call to FireFly office. Swiss guy gave me his phone and I was dialing to FireFly office - the manager at the other end told me that shuttle will be there in 10 minutes. Thank you Swiss guy - you saved our day back there in airport.
We took the full insurance and as a gift got a free GPS device (TomTom…
Kiwi Vegan Cafe Tbilisi
| Restaurant reviews | 17 seen
Kiwi is a vegan non-profit community cafe located on Vertskli street 41, in Tbilisi Old Town. It is stated that all of their proceedings are donated to good causes related to animal rights. Kiwi provides a free social meeting space for organizations who are working for important change in the society, events can be arranged.
Kiwi vegan cafe is the second socially responsible cafe I have found so far in Tbilisi (I don't search for them specially, they just pops in front of me). See Art Cafe Kamara - a social enterprise art cafe which employs rehabilitated persons from different addicts
That was on sunny February afternoon, I decided to head to the Old Town to capture photo of the day (See: 365 days photo project) after all I ended up with a Piece of Life story about Tbilisi - Pearl of Caucasus. I ended my that days wanderings in some side streets (where I actually haven't been before) and noticed Kiwi cafe.
Kiwi cafe located on Verchli street
Since I have heard of this place before I decided to go in.
Inside cafe
Since this is a vegan cafe, and I'm not a vegan I…