Renting an Office in Tbilisi
Just google it - rent an office in Tbilisi, or office for rent in Tbilisi and you will be mesmerized with zillions of search results. In today's Living in Georgia article series, I will share my experience about renting an office space in Tbilisi.
In short - it is a pain in the ass. There is a lack of A-Class or B-class office space for rent in Tbilisi. And if there is something it will cost you a wealth. There are plenty of questionable quality office spaces. Sure, they could be cheap.
Most of the visible office spaces in Tbilisi already is taken by small travel agencies, moving in and out on the monthly basis, I guess.
In normal circumstances, you would…
Crazy, Stupid, Love - Tranquil Rough Adventures in Crete
This was one of the most beautiful and craziest days we experienced in Crete during our three-week trip around the island (June 2017).It feels like just this morning, we picked up our rental Opel at Agia Marina and set off with no destination in mind, just exploring the island. We had a lovely breakfast at Cafe Mixail Malandrakis in Kalydonia, spent some time at the beautiful beaches near Kissamos, followed a rough route to Balos Beach, turned back, and enjoyed one of the best Cretan meals at Gramvousa in Kaliviani. We also found a cafe with a spectacular view and even met a donkey at Beata's Orange Juice Bar.Sounds like a lot? Nope, it wasn’t nearly enough! By the end of the day, we had…
Cozy Latvian Family Run Tbilisi Hostel 17/17 - Centrally located, Close to the Opera
Hostel 17/17 is a family run Tbilisi hostel, located on the Rezo Tabukashvili Street No. 17. This place has been just recently renovated and opened for public.Hostel 17/17 offers great quality for a budget price - you should be willing to spend just EUR 12 per night (per person) to stay at Hostel 17/17. This hostel is run by Mr. David Iakobidze - a great storyteller and mastermind in finances - make sure to listen to some of his banking experience stories, they are awesome. Interested in cryptocurrencies or Georgian Stock market? David has an opinion. A helping hand to manage this hostel is provided by another family members, like Davids mother - Regina Jakobidze, a long-…
Net Worth Reached $10,000
On October 13, 2017, my net worth for the first time reached $10,000 Milestone. It was just 10 months after I started my million dollar journey and I was 32 years old.To celebrate this little victory I've decided to wrap up a brief article for the history.It doesn't come as a surprise, as I have been preparing to reach $10,000 milestone this year, just I thought it will happen most probably after a month. But rising Bitcoin price and great performing Baltic stock market gave a nice boost to the total value of the portfolio, on this October 13 Friday night.On the overall I've exceeded my initial plan for this year's investments - originally I planned to deposit $8,561 this year in several…
Bond Market Overview in Georgia (Fixed Income) 2017
Investments in Georgia, have been on my focus, probably since the day one since I relocated here (see: Living in Georgia), back in 2011. Unfortunately, it was hard to find a transparent and easy to understand stock exchange.Sure, I found Georgia Stock exchange website, but what I saw there a few years ago, didn't give me a lot of confidence to trust the platform and investigate more, On the other hand, I was more interested in buying stocks, rather investing in bonds. For me, bonds have always sounded kind of boring, and in fact, I haven't yet invested in bonds. Now, at the end of 2017, some things have changed, I've started to build my million dollar investment fund, and I have…
Mintos.com Peer To Peer Lending Review After 9 Month of Investing
Mintos is a Latvian made peer-to-peer lending marketplace operating Globally, it connects investors with borrowers of non-bank lenders.It is an easy and transparent alternative to the traditional banking system. At Mintos both retail and institutional investors can invest in fractions of loans originated in Europe, Africa, and Asia.Currently, they serve agricultural loans, business loans, invoice financing, mortgage loans, personal loans, pawnbroking loans, car loans and short-term loans. The minimum investment in one loan is EUR 10. Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European…
September 2017 Dividend Income Report - $55.08
Welcome to the fifth (#5) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in September 2017. If you are new to my dividend income report series, where I'm sharing my progress towards financial freedom, here is the backstory in short - I started my wealth building adventure (portfolio) in January 2017 with a simple goal to invest $8,561 this year in several batches. First months of the year generated me nothing much, but starting May it has started slowly and steady to increaseSeptember was a decent in terms of dividend…
Beata's Orange Juice Bar, Crete
It was on our third-day trip around Crete, when we discovered an interesting roadside cafeteria promising breathtaking views, just later, post-processing photos with the help of Google Maps I was able to track down coordinates and name for this place - Beata's Orange Juice Bar, Crete.Indeed - views here was lovely, though the most interesting "tourist attraction" was a donkey. A kind owner suddenly got a donkey out of nowhere and here you go - fresh orange juice, donkey, and panoramic views. Outdoor deck with great viewsCould be cool on a cloudy day, walk in the clouds feeling, see my photography from walk in the clouds in Georgia: 5 Days In Georgia Itinerary List - Make…
Back to the Gym - Get Under 99kg Beard Challenge
Getting fit is cool, getting heart rate normal is awesome. Visiting a gym can be really addictive. For the second time this year I'm taking beard growing challenge - not to shave it under I will get under 99 kilos.
Let me explain, back at the start of 2017 I applied for a gym membership at Tbilisi's Champions Academy, my weight was 105 kg, I made a challenge to grow a beard until I will weight less than 100kg. I reached my goal in less than 2 months. My best result was 97.2 kg on March 23rd, 2017. Then starting April I took a pause from a gym for 6 months (obstacles, relocating to another country without access to the gym). I gained weight back.
Tip: Losing weight is a…
Floating Block for Drupal 8
The Floating block is a nice helper module which allows you to keep HTML blocks, selected using jquery selectors in a fixed position on the page as you scroll. I've been using Floating block mostly for my personal blog to feature related content (you can see floating module while browsing this web page from a desktop computer.)
In fact, I stop using floating block module a couple of years ago, but recently I was contacted by another Drupal webmaster, regarding my tutorial on Floating Block module for Drupal 7 site and taking a fresh look at this module, I understood - Floating block module helps UI by filling up sidebar, so it's never empty.
When speaking about…
Views Infinite Scroll / Load more with Ajax for Drupal 8
As you might guess from the title already, in today's Drupal tutorial I will write about how to configure infinite scroll/load more button for Drupal 8 website. The best - both behaviors can be achieved using just one module - Views Infinite Scroll
Check out following tutorials for Drupal 7: Drupal masonry front page, Views lode more pager with Ajax for Drupal
And again, as in the previous tutorials, you can find a live preview on Tourgeorgia.eu
Download and enable Views Infinite Scroll module
Visit views page, you would like to attach infinite scroll or load more function
Change Pager: Infinite scroll, I will use 10 items to load on default
Pager settings for…
How To Enable Custom Google Fonts For Drupal 8 Website
There are several options how to enable custom fonts for Drupal 8 website, in this article I will stick with one of the easiest - using a custom module - @font-your-face
As usual, for this Drupal tutorial I will use a real-time scenario: For Tourgeorgia.eu website I'm using custom Premium theme adapted for Drupal 8, at one stage I noticed that example theme looks better than customized, and then I realized we are missing few fonts, which must be loaded manually.
As, said there are several options to handle this, but this time I decided to use a module. Again, there are two scenarios possible, either you are building Drupal theme from scratch and writing custom .css…
Matsoni House
Matsoni is a Georgian fermented milk product, kind of similar to yogurt. Made from cow’s milk. Now, there is even a Matsoni House, where some (probably you) can try this product served with honey or nuts and so on. There is even an ice cream made from Matsoni. Matsoni house is located just opposite to the Alaverdi Monastery, in the region of Kakheti, Georgia.Matsoni house near Alaverdi monasteryIf you are visiting the Alaverdi Monastery, it' s hard to miss this lovely place, located just opposite the cathedral. Smart.Matsoni with honey and walnutsIce cream from MatsoniDelicious.!
Grape Harvest Rtveli in Georgia (Region of Kakheti)
If there is the best time to visit lovely Georgia, I would highly recommend to visit it in September, during the grape harvest time, or Rtveli. Rtveli is a traditional vintage and rural harvest holiday in Georgia accompanied by feasts, musical events, and other celebrations. It normally takes place in late September in eastern Georgia and in mid-October in western Georgia.It was in the mid-September of 2017, we had just returned from Latvia, where we already gathered our autumn harvest and decided to spend a weekend in Kakheti (Region of wine), we booked a lovely chateau, next to Gremi monastery complex and just enjoyed our time here. Let the photos speak up…
Kvareli Lake Resort
Kvareli lake resort is located in the heart of Kakheti, one of the most beautiful regions of Georgia and to the east of the small city Kvareli, beneath the southern slope of Great Caucasus mountains.The unique and beautiful Kvareli Lake Resort spreads over 300 hectares of beautiful natural landscape. There is located a hotel and restaurant at resort territory.We headed here just to enjoy a cup of coffee with a beautiful view in mid-September 2017. I must say, if I had to choose a leisure accommodation in Kakheti, I would recommend choosing from Royal Batoni, Lopota lake or Kvareli lake resort. All of them offers excellent lake views. Kvareli lake resortFeaturing a…
Alaverdi Monastery in Georgia
Alaverdi Monastery is a Georgian Eastern Orthodox monastery located 25 km from Akhmeta, in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia.While parts of the monastery date back to 6th century, the present-day cathedral was built in the 11th century by Kvirike III of Kakheti, replacing an older church of St. George.Despite being on my travel bucket list in Georgia for a very long time, I first visited it in the middle of September 2017, during a two-day trip to Kakheti. See: Day Trip to Kakheti in GeorgiaAlaverdi Monastery in GeorgiaThe monastery was founded by the Assyrian monk Joseph (Yoseb, Amba) Alaverdeli, who came from Antioch and…
Home Remodeling - Season 3 (2017)
We had some great plans for this Summer's home remodeling works, unfortunately, we faced some obstacles, and decided to stop any further home remodeling works for this year.Despite being pretty upset about our situation, we still enjoyed a great Summer at our rural country property.Here I'm adding pictures, how it all looked in April 2017, make sure to check out how it all started, and see previous years start of the season.Let's start with one of the biggest pride - the freshly dug pond in the front of the housePond in April 2017Amazing, it is full with water. See how we waited for water level to rise, last autumn: Waiting For The Water Level Rising In The PondView towards…
Rose Garden 'Dailas Rozes' near Tukums in Latvia
We received a special request, from a special person, to deliver park rose Rītausma, which could translate as Dawn in English.Rītausma is a local, Latvia selected park rose breed. To get one (seedling price was about EUR 5), we had to cross half of the country, to find this special, precious rose at Dailas Rozes, located in Sēme parish, some 5km from Tukums.After spending an hour at Dailas Rozes park, I felt impressed, made a few photos here and would highly recommend this place to all rose lovers.RozītesDailas Rozes is located in Rozītes, Sēme parish, Tukums district, Latvia. We did find problematic to find this place, but for that, I've added coordinates (at…
Autumn Harvest in The Garden
Back at our rural country house in Latvia, we have a pretty international garden, plants, and flowers from different countries across the world, so, for example, we have a tulip bulbs from the Netherlands, cabbage seeds from the United States of America, some lichens from Georgia, and of course traditional Latvian plants.It was at the end of August 2017, we decided it's the right time to harvest the crop, we planted back in Spring. In today's Piece of Lifes series - Autumn Harvest 2017GardenToday we will dig potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, and cut cabbagesSee, how we made this garden a year ago using ground tiller: Ground Milling With A TillerChrysanthemumsI'm bad at…
One of The Best Traditional Cretan Restaurants - Gramvousa in Kaliviani
There is another clear winner in my top restaurant list - Gramvousa Restaurant in the small Cretan village Kaliviani. Discovered by the accident, during our travels in Crete at the start of June 2017.We headed here after failed attempt to reach Balos beach in the nearby vicinity, see: Discoveries in Crete - Rough Road To Balos BeachRight now it's hard to remember where did we actually headed, but we were driving through this small village, just later we learned the name of it - Kaliviani. As it was afternoon already, we just looked for some lovely roadside restaurants, and here it was - Gramvousa Traditional Cretan Restaurant.Gramvousa Traditional Cretan…