Blog Archive: May 2016
An ex-pat living in Georgia since 2011, I trade stocks, take photographs, work out at the gym, and many more. Here I write about travel, finance, and other things that might interest me.
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Edward The Brushcutter AW-BC620TH Trimmer
Meet Edward, our newest team member to help us out in our home remodeling works. I first met Edward at local DEPO DIY store in Liepāja, Latvia. The sales person wanted me to buy a Jasper, as Jasper was listed just under EUR 100. In my mind I had allocated about EUR 400 for a new brush cutter / trimmer purchase and I asked to the salesperson can he show me something more powerful than Jasper? I was introduced with many never heard brand names…
The Big Spring Cleanup Part 2 - Trimming Trees and Branches
After the successful Big Spring cleanup of territory surrounding our rural house, and after masonry works with chimney it was time to get rid of old and broken branches. Frankly speaking I thought it will be enough just to cut one broken branch from our apple orchard and trimming some smaller bushes in garden. Turned out I was wrong. After all we trimmed many trees and way more branches. For this task I hired a professional saw guy, which I was…
Former Kolkhoz Spartak
It was on a still and tranquil Friday evening when we took our cat Tiger on a walk. I took a tripod and camera and just documented were we went. Turned out we were walking with our cat at former kolkhoz Spartaks territory, A kolkhoz was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to emerge in Soviet agriculture after…
Drupal Patch For Location Module To Update Province List for Latvia With Latest Data
Made a simple Drupal patch for Location module to display latest administrative divisions of Latvia. Default one is still showing outdated data using old "Rayon" as administrative divisions of Latvia. Will try to submit this patch to official module release on Drupal.orf From Wikipedia: According to the Administrative territorial reform of Latvia (2009), Latvia changed its administrative divisions from two-level municipalities (the …
Repairing Old Brick Chimney
On April 20, 2016 we completely changed a top of our brick chimney at our rural country house. It was not planned actually to change all top of chimney, just to add two rows of bricks. Thus after a quick inspection it was clear - it's time to replace it all. Read how we lost a chimney in past: Replacing Roof - Part 3: Removing the old roofing (Losing Chimney) Workers inspecting chimney It was clear - there are no other option, but to remove…
Restaurant "Ukrainochka" in Batumi
Restaurant Ukrainochka is located at Batumi Railway Station terminal building, some 3 km from Batumi city centre. Food served here is true masterpieces of Ukrainian cuisine, not to mention blonde and beautiful Ukrainian girls serving your meal here. We enjoyed our Ukrainian meal here, while waited for train departing back to Tbilisi. Spacious space at Ukrainochka in Batumi Menu at Ukrainochka restaurant Both traditional Ukrainian…
Batumi Railway Station
Batumi railway station has been recently constructed and opened for public, making travels by train from Tbilisi to Batumi a little bit easier. Prior that, train stopped at Makjinjauri station (some 7 km from Batumi city center) I took a train ride from Tbilisi to Batumi at start of March 2016, and was 100% sure that new station will be located somewhere in Batumi city - I was wrong. The new station is still located some 3 km from city, and to…
How To Make Burger Buns at Home
If you asked me how to make hamburger buns at home question some eight years ago - I would say - it's complicated and most probably impossible. Ask me today - and I will not only exactly tell - but I will show some cool pictures of both how to make burger buns at home and some really delicious home made burgers and variation of hotdogs. Allow me to inform you - I'm not the original creator of what you will see next (I was allowed just to…
The Big Spring Territory Cleanup
Few days ago I announced start for Season 2 of our home remodeling adventures. We have some really big plans to achieve this year - like getting a water supply and constructing from scratch few walls. Also a bathroom is planned to be finished until end of this Summer. But our home renovation tasks starts with outdoor territory. More precise with the big Spring cleanup. We had to clean area not only from old leaves and branches, but also from…
Batumi Botanical Garden
Batumi Botanical Garden is a must have to visit tourism attraction site when in Batumi. Botanical Garden is actually located at the place called Mtsvane Kontskhi ("The Green Cape") in distance of some 10 km from Batumi city on the Black Sea shore, it is one of the largest botanical gardens in the former Soviet Union. You can get here either by hiring a taxi from Batumi (I negotiated price for about 10 GEL .March 2016) or using mini vans (…
I Will Miss This Tbilisi Wall
I have observed this wall for the last three years (with short interruptions, when on longer travels) from our Tbilisi balcony. Probably, right at this wallI started to improve my photographer skills when about two years ago I reported first time lapse - Brick Wall turning green. Looking on this wall I have spent countless hours by zooming, experimenting with f stops, changing lenses and so on, making many photographs for my 365 days photo…