Blog Archive: March 2019

Asureti / Elisabethtal

31 March, 2019 | Tourism objects | 201 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…

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…

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

29 March, 2019 | Options trading | 43 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.

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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…

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

28 March, 2019 | Options trading | 11 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.

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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…

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…

Day trip to Sighnaghi and Back

24 March, 2019 | Travel guides | 15 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.

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…

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

21 March, 2019 | Gadget Reviews | 110 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…

Top 10 Countries By Proven Natural Gas Reserves

20 March, 2019 | Macroeconomics | 68 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.

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

19 March, 2019 | Servers | 42 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,…

Ninotsminda Cathedral

17 March, 2019 | Churches and Monasteries | 14 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…

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!

Top 25 Wine Export Countries

15 March, 2019 | Macroeconomics | 32 seen

Now, this is interesting, after living in Georgia for almost 8 years, visiting its winemaking region Kakheti quite often, visiting countless chateaux's and marani's across the country - I thought Georgia should be in the top 10 or something.

It was at the end of 2018 I noticed Georgian journalists proudly reporting Georgia as a top 20 wine exporting country.

At first, I thought - cool, and decided to see which are the rest of the countries, probably, France, Italy, Chile, defiantly USA, South Africa. Well, huge was my surprise seeing countries like Latvia and Lithuania ranking at top 20 well above for such wine producing countries like Georgia or Moldova.

Anyhow, according to the Worlds Top Exports: 

Global sales from wine exports by country amounted to US$35.5 billion in 2017.

Among continents, European countries accounted for the highest dollar value of wine exports during 2017 with shipments worth $25.2 billion or 71% of globally exported wine.
Oceania’s international wine sales, led by Australia and New Zealand, came in at 9.2% followed closely by Latin America (…

'German reunification - a short history' Documentary

14 March, 2019 | Documentaries | 13 seen

Another great documentary from DW. This documentary is about the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Germany's reunification back in 1989.

Interesting details revealing behind the scenes on how West Germany handled the reunification behind the backs of the Allied Forces

The fall of the Berlin Wall changed the course of history overnight. But German Reunification was never a guarantee. The situation could have spiraled out of control at any moment. Find out more in 2 + 4 + X: A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMAN REUNIFICATION.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl took advantage of the chaos during this turbulent time. His 10-point plan paved the way for the reunification of a divided Germany - but this was done behind the backs of the Allied Forces. Those who witnessed the events tell the story of the “2+4” negotiations and rocky road the world took to reunite the GDR with the West.

Watch on YouTube

Restaurant Natakhtaris Veli

12 March, 2019 | Restaurant reviews | 19 seen

Restaurant Natakhtris Veli is located in the Natakhtari village, accessible when driving from Tbilisi via Mtskheta to Gudauri. 

This place serves typical Georgian cuisine. Cozy atmosphere, fast service, friendly staff. Actually a pretty touristic place, but despite that, no rip off here. 

Restaurant Natakhtaris Veli

Located next to the Mtksheta- Gudauri highway. You can park your car in front of the restaurant.

Meal at Restaurant Natakhtaris Veli