St. Petersburg when the sun’s come out to play is to me the best city to be in in Europe. And I’m not alone in declaring such a bold sentiment – I’ve heard it from many others from many different countries too. But why ‘in Europe’? That’s just so as to be able to compare meaningfully. It’s difficult comparing Russia’s second city with, say, Hong Kong or Singapore, as they’re just so different on so many levels. But I digress. So, about StP!…

Read on: nostalgic!…

I wrote in my last post that I was headed home after Sheffield. But I’d forgotten about our scheduled stay en route in Hamburg – possibly the most beautiful city in Germany. I think that’s a sign the trip had been a bit too hectic: forgetting completely about an upcoming port-of-call is most unlike me.

So here we are – in Hamburg!

The possibilities for the tourist in Hamburg are vast. It was tricky deciding but, after the day’s business, my travel companion and I plumped for an Elbe river and seaport (one of the largest in Europe, and Germany’s main port) boat excursion.

Off we go! And the first thing we see: Tolkien!

Read on…

I often get asked what’s my favorite sport (along with, of late, which matches I’m planning on watching during the upcoming World Cup).

And my usual answer normally seems to disappoint a little: I don’t really have one, as I don’t like sitting in one spot in a stadium or on the sofa in front of the TV watching sport. I prefer to be doing the sport – rather, active activities – myself. Scaling volcanoes, going off on long expeditions in far-flung corners of the world, or just trekking along the banks of a river down a mountainous valley – that’s my bag.

And besides, I don’t watch TV – at all (dreadful habit:).

(Oops – me telling fibs again; I do watch TV in tiny doses: I watch kiddies’ stuff together with my own kiddies; I sometimes glance at the zombie-panel in the gym between sets; on the treadmill in the gym I switch to the nature/wildlife channels; and I’m not averse to peeking at a screen in business lounges in airports. But that really is it:)

Wait. I also watch Formula 1 races on screens, but that’s not quite ‘TV’. It’s normally in the Ferrari paddock, and there’s technical race info on the screens too. But I don’t watch a Grand Prix of a Sunday afternoon on regular TV.

So, yeah – you get it: I generally don’t watch telly. But there is one exception I make (besides all the other quasi-exceptions mentioned above). There is one thing on the TV that can force me to sit in one place for a long time. And it is a sport. And it is… snooker!

Not pool, not billiards… snooker, with its more refined rules and more tactical gameplay. And, by a strange (!) coincidence, we happen to sponsor one of the stages of the World Snooker Championship – Riga Masters.

And since I was in the UK, and my travel/business schedule permitted it, I got myself up to Sheffield, to watch the semi-final of the World Snooker Championship 2018!

Read on…

Having just completed a vacation-till-you-drop tour of the Caribbean and Bahamas – up early every morning, late to bed every night, daily flights between the islands, sore index finger from all the snapping – it was time for a complete change: of continent. But the island theme, arguably, continued, for we were headed to London, capital of the UK – another island nation.

I find myself in the British capital frequently – our European HQ is here, so there’s always plenty of business needs seeing to. And seeing as though I’m here often, and have been known to enjoy a lengthy, brisk stroll if I can fit one into my working schedule, I decided a few years back to walk different sections of the Thames Path at different times, whenever I can. You can’t do the whole Path in one go as it’s just too long – nearly 300km! Well, I’d done four sections to date, with the last one taking me as far as Richmond Lock. Now, it was time for the fifth installment…

So, setting off from above-mentioned lock, the first things we come to are two bridges:

Conveniently, practically all bridges along the route have paths or tunnels going under them beside the river, meaning you don’t have to climb up from the Thames to get past them.

Read on…

Get ready folks – this post is full of extremely bright colors. I recommend wearing sunglasses (and a Panama hat) so you don’t get blinded (and sunburned:). For this post is dedicated to the 365 Bahaman islands – cays – of Exuma, one of the most beautiful places in the world…

As often occurs on these here blogpages when I encounter off-the-scale natural beauty, there’ll be few words today and, you guessed it, lots of pics…

Read on:

Hi folks!

Next up, Montserrat, aka, the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean.

Brief main info: This is another British Overseas Territory. Population: ~5000. Again, the locals don’t live too high on the hog; however, the island has a pleasant climate and outward appearance, which makes it a hit with foreigners who live very high on the hog and who like to visit, as can be seen from all the very nice houses and villas (from a helicopter).

Read on…

Next port of Caribbean call – Anguilla, here.

A small, thin island a mere 25 kilometers long, with a population of 17,000. Rather poor – like Venezuela or Cuba. A self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom. Tax haven.

Main facts and figures over with, let’s see the pics…

Read on…

Hi folks!

As promised, herewith, the next islands of the Lesser Antilles. Next up: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

This is another sovereign state, made up of Saint Vincent and – surprise, surprise – the Grenadines. The former is relatively large, covering some 300+km²; the latter is made up of dozens of small and tiny islands, all of which are extraordinarily beautiful – one of them being Mustique.

Read on…

You really should not believe all you read on the internet. But surely we all know that, right?

But, then, at the same time, there are some resources on the net that can be trusted. For example, there’s Wikipedia, which I often refer to in my blogposts. However, even it needs to be read with the occasional pinch of salt added to taste – as I have mentioned occasionally here on this blog.

The issue is basically differences between the information given on different language versions of one and the same Wikipedia subject.

Example: On Wikipedia’s English-language page on Stuxnet – the first known cyberweapon ever to be deployed (the infamous worm which in 2010 physically damaged the Iranian atomic program), it used to state (it’s since been corrected) that Stuxnet was discovered by KL. But it wasn’t. It was first discovered by the Belorussian company VirusBlokAda, and later first ‘cut open and dissected’ by America’s Symantec. Back then we were a little slow and missed the first train. The expert at VirusBlokAda who did first find it, Sergey Ulasen, did soon after come and work for us, but that doesn’t mean we found Stuxnet! Still – there it was, on the English Wikipedia page on Stuxnet. While the Russian-language Stuxnet page told the story correctly.

Such discrepancies I see sometimes on Wikipedia between the Russian and English pages as I like to check both (often out of curiosity to find such discrepancies!). However, who’s to say there aren’t the same – or completely different – discrepancies among some or all the different language versions of any given Wikipedia subject? I haven’t checked, nor can be expected to, as I don’t know dozens of languages. But… just sayin’ and all. It just makes you wonder. In fact, it made me wonder if anyone has a studied this issue in depth. But I digress…

Aaaaaannnnyyyyway, it turns out there’s a discrepancy between certain info on the Russian and English Wiki pages for the Caribbean island of Mustique. In Russian it states that ~ ‘the only means of transportation on the island is the golf cart’. But that just ain’t true. The island has regular cars that travel on regular roads. Meanwhile, over at the English-language page, there’s no mention of golf carts!

Of course, maybe things have changed since when the page was written. But if they have, well… the pages need updating!

Read on…

North Pole with Ocean’s Arctic’s 11, Panama. But that was just for starters. Next up… a place, perhaps, you’ve never heard of – or maybe didn’t realize was a sovereign state:

Read on…