On Saturday we will say our last goodbyes to my very strong-willed, artistic and caring grandmother Margarita, who passed away last Friday. She will be sadly missed by all of us. This is a picture of her and my grandfather Eduards, on their engagement day in 1933....

I travelled to Georgia a week ago with the "Saucējas" to sing at a festival in Batumi, a resort town on the Black Sea. We spent a whole week travelling to various places: a few days in Batumi singing, dancing and walking on the grey and pebbly beach; some time in the capital, Tbilisi, which we already knew from a trip 2 years ago, and day trips out to various places in the country - amazing cliffs with networks of caves long abandoned; a monastery made of rock with monks still living within; a...