Kapiloni Restaurant in Telavi

18 July, 2020 | Restaurant reviews | 55 seen

Kapiloni restaurant in Telavi is located on Barnovi street 10, just opposite to the King Erekle museum.

I had a chance to visit this place at the start of July, during our trip to the Lopota lake

Kapiloni restaurant serves typical Georgian cuisine for quite affordable prices

Ojakhuri at Kapiloni restaurant

Ojakhuri is the generic name for meat (usually pork) and fried potatoes. 

Chicken barbeque

Hotel Berna Milan

17 July, 2020 | Hotel reviews | 15 seen

Hotel Berna is a 4-star hotel,  located 200 m from Milan Central Train Station and Metro.

 Free tea, coffee and snacks are available all day. All rooms are soundproofed and include air conditioning, free WiFi and a satellite LCD TV. 

We booked here a stay back in November 2019 for a couple of days and paid about $200 for our stay here (don't remember anymore,  was it one night or two nights). 

The hotel indeed is centrally located, we decided to come here from another hotel in Milan, see Hotel 'San Francisco' Milan

Hotel Berna in Milan

The Berna Hotel serves a large, continental breakfast buffet including fresh fruit, pastries and a selection of teas and coffees. Special diet foods are also available on request.

Hotel Berna

This non-smoking hotel is just 4 Metro Stops from the famous Milan Cathedral. By metro or bus you can easily reach all main attractions in town, as well as the MiCo Congress Centre and the Rho FieraMilano Exhibition Centre.

White Cherry Jam

16 July, 2020 | Food blogger | 18 seen

White cherry jam is quite popular here in Georgia. Georgians like to add nuts to the jam, but for this food recipe we will make a jam from cherries only (adding a bit lemon skin and peppermint though)

The first step was to obtain cherries, for this task we asked our housekeeper to buy a few kilos at Rustavi market (she is from Rustavi), that's how we got about 4 kilograms of white cherries.

White cherries

I'm not sure why they are called white when they are actually yellow/red

The next step was to remove pits from the cherry for this task it was agreed to use a straw.

Separating pits from the cherries using a drinking straw

For cleaning some 5 kilograms of cherries it took some 2 hours. While still cleaning 2 kilograms of sugar were added in water to melt on slow fire. Latter a lemon skin and peppermint were added for flavoring.

Lemon skin and peppermint in sugar syrup water 

The lemon skin and peppermint were later removed, but some are saying lemon skin could be left in the jam.

Adding cherries to the syrup water

It turned out this pot…

Buenos Aires (Milan Shopping Street)

14 July, 2020 | Shopping Venues | 116 seen

Corso Buenos Aires is a major street in north-eastern Milan, Italy. With over 350 shops and outlets, it features the highest concentration of clothing stores in Europe. The architecture of the area is mostly late 19th- and 20th-century style; the street and its surroundings are pointed with several neo-classical and art nouveau buildings.

I had a chance to visit Corso Buenos Aires back at the end of 2019, during our about a week-long trip to Italy

Corso Buenos Aires

Corso Buenos Aires is located in the north-eastern part of Milan, corresponding to the Zone 3 administrative division. It is about 1.2 km long, going roughly south-west to north-east, along the ideal line connecting Milan's centre at the Duomo to the nearby city of Monza. The street itself starts at Piazzale Oberdan, in the Porta Venezia neighbourhood, and ends in Piazzale Loreto. Going towards the city centre, the prosecution of Corso Buenos Aires is Corso Venezia, that reaches the very centre at Piazza San Babila, in the immediate surroundings of the Duomo. From the opposite end in…

Tbilisi Sea Club

11 July, 2020 | Lakes | 324 seen

Tbilisi sea club is a popular and paid recreational area located next to the Tbilisi sea.

For an entrance fee of GEL 20/per person (kids are free) you could get a free parking lot, free sunbed, free entry to the outdoor pool, and great access to the Tbilisi sea.

Yacht rental is possible (starting GEL 70/per hour), restaurant, restrooms, and the outdoor shower are available. 

Public parking lot at Tbilisi Sea club

Its said the club is working from June until mid-September. During the 2020 season working hours were 9-21

People getting tan on floating decks

On the day we visited it (Saturday, June 20, 2020) it was a very hot and sunny day, the place was pretty crowded. 

There is also a white sand beach available, with rocky entrance to the sea, most folks seems enjoy laying on the sunbeds on these floating decks.

A little harbor at Tbilisi sea club

Yachts are available for rent, also jet-ski are available.

How To Add CAPTCHA Protection to Drupal 8 Webform

9 July, 2020 | Drupal Development | 209 seen

Recently I launched a new Drupal 8 website and was surprised by a spam amount we got via website's contact form (built with Webform module). 

As the website was new, I was manually blocking each spammers IP, but the amount got larger and larger, to avoid that, I decided to install Captcha module, just like in the case with Drupal 7, see: Adding CAPTCHA to Drupal 7 Webform

A CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test most often placed within web forms to determine whether the user is human. The purpose of CAPTCHA is to block form submissions by spambots, which are automated scripts that post spam content everywhere they can. The CAPTCHA module provides this feature to virtually any user-facing web form on a Drupal site.

I will assume, you have already configured your webform, now let's add captcha to it, and keep those spammers away 

Go to admin/config/people/captcha click on the tab Form settings, as we are using Webform module here, enable node_webform_form 

Drupal 8 configuring captcha module

Once, enabled, click edit and in the blank text box under "Form…

Restaurant Imeruli Ezo

7 July, 2020 | Restaurant reviews | 17 seen

Restaurant Imeruli Ezo is a nice roadside restaurant located in Natakhtari (this area is famous for its restaurants)

We made a lovely dinner here at the start of June 2020, returning from our adventures at the Poppy fields near Mchadijvari

Inside yard at Imeruli Ezo

In direct translation from Georgian to English - Imeruli Ezo - means - Imeretian yard. And yes they are serving here Imeretian style food.

The food at Imeruli Ezo

We ordered some salads, mcvadi, badrijani, Turkish Coffee, and some Georgian lemonades. 

How To Exlude URL's Form Google AdSense Auto Ads

4 July, 2020 | Blogging | 13 seen

Google AdSense auto ads have been available for some time already, in the past I have used them with mixed success. 

Fast forward to 2020 and I decided to give them another shot. But there was one thing worrying me - I don't want to show Google Ads on every single page, and I want to take control of it. As my blog is built with Drupal, in the past I have used a few tricks to get what I want. 

Auto ads offer a simple and innovative way for you to monetize your content. With Auto ads, you place one piece of code on all pages across your site. Auto ads will then scan your site and automatically place ads where they’re likely to perform well and potentially generate more revenue.

Google offers excluding specific URLs for showing auto ads on.

The first step I decided to set up and run Google Auto Ads for a couple of days, and then use Google Analytics to filter out URLs with most AdSense views/clicks (You should connect both AdSense and Analytics to have such feature)

Filtering pages with most Google AdSense views /clicks in Google Analytics

Now there are 4 pages from top 10 pages I don't want Google Ads be shown,…

How To Create a Custom Drupal 8 Theme based on Bootstrap

3 July, 2020 | Drupal Development | 43 seen

When building a new Drupal website I prefer working with a Bootstrap theme and apply a subtheme 

Just like in the case with Drupal 7, theming a subtheme based on Bootstrap is super simple - in a few words - download and enable a Drupal 8 bootstrap theme, then in the Drupal themes folder create a new theme folder and make a custom info.yml file

here is a live example from OptionsBrew.com theme

• in the themes folder, create a new folder -> optionbrew
• in the optionbrew folder create a new file - > optionsbrew.info.yml

in the optionsbrew.info.yml file paste following:

Save the file and clear the…

Happy Kids Saldus

2 July, 2020 | Entertainment | 14 seen

Happy Kids Saldus is a cool kid's amusement park in the town of Saldus, Latvia.

I first read about in on a local Latvian Daily Business newspaper, and soon as I had the chance took our baby girl to play here.

Amusement park "Happy Kids" at the Saldus bypass road has created a place to celebrate children's parties and other holidays.

Happy Kids indoor amusement park in Saldus

We visited this park on March 2020, back then the entrance fee was like EUR3/h per kid or EUR 5 for 2 hours. 

Popular party place for kids parties in the area

Playground for the little ones (toddlers)

June 2020 Dividend Income Report - $82.11

1 July, 2020 | Investments | 11 seen

Welcome to the thirty-eight (#38) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in June 2020.

Just like the previous months, the last June we also spent in a self-isolation (because of Covid-19) here in Georgia. More of the strict lockdown measurements were lifted (inner tourism, restaurants and hotels were opened for public)  we did a few weekend trips with an overnight stay at local resorts here in Georgia.  Baby girl is started to attend her pre-school, she is doing great - talking a lot, putting together sentences, mixing languages, figuring out new words. Awesome. Quite fascinating what a 23-month-old can do. Development is very rapid.

Lopota Lake resort in Georgia

From the perspective of dividend income -  last June was very bad, we barely took $82.11, most of our dividends are trimmed or halted for now. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but relying on dividends these days is very hard.

Compared to the previous June in 2019, when we almost took $300 in dividend income,…

Poppy fields near Mchadijvari

30 June, 2020 | Tourism objects | 228 seen

Summers in Georgia are very beautiful, traveling around the country is a pleasure. One such travel happened at the start of June 2020, when we decided to find the real poppy field.

Let me explain, a couple of weeks ago we already started to search for a poppy field here in Georgia to make lovely family photos, we did found one little field near Marneuli, and we even took very good portrait photography,  but this time we decided to find a real, rich with flowers, good for photography, and luckily thanks to the hints on Facebook we got location details - Poppy fields near Mchadijvari

Poppy fields near Mchadijvari in Georgia

The destination is quite easy reachable from Tbilisi, in about an hour we were here, with a little stop at Tsilkani Cathedral

Using Google Maps we added following route - Tbilisi - > Tsilkani cathedral - Mchadijvari. Once in the Mchadijvari, there is a Mchadijvari cathedral, and on the right side there is road, some 500 meters and there is a little unpaved road, another 300-400 meters and our destinations was reached

Poppy fields near Mchadijvari in Georgia

It…

Saint Dimitri Tesalonikeli Fathers Moanstery near Mtksheta

27 June, 2020 | Churches and Monasteries | 10 seen

This is a little monastery near Mtskheta, best reached via Mtskheta-Shiomghvime monastery road.

That's how we actually discovered this place at the end of May 2020 - during a random drive to the Shio-Mgvime monastery, we looked for some nice picnic areas to dine outdoors, we did a few stops here and there until noticed this place.

We didn't picnic here, but in the nearby forest after a brief trip to the monastery.

Probably not as impressive as the Jvari monastery or Svetistkhoveli cathedral in Mtshekta this place has some magic.

Little wooden roadside in Georgian 

The monastery complex is at the end of the road. Next to the monastery, there is a forest park and some horseback riding activities.

At the entrance of the entrance, we met monks, and they allowed us to come inside to take look around and take some photographs. 

A little church

There is a little church inside. What's interesting they are using solar power to generate electricity here. Very modern and sustainable. 

Wooden log houses inside the monastery

I'm not an expert on monastery…

Average Monthly Salary in European Union 2020

26 June, 2020 | Macroeconomics | 527 seen

In 2020 three were 27 member states in the European Union (EU), 19 of the 27 EU member states have adopted the euro (€) as their common currency.

In this article, I've compared the gross monthly average salary for 2020. As I have been writing these articles since 2014, I've left the United Kingdom, just for reference.

Update: Average Monthly Salary in European Union 2022

I wouldn't call the below written scientific research or take it too seriously, as most of the data in this article are taken from Wikipedia's article List of European countries by average wage. 

All calculations are done using Google Spreadsheets. The data provided below might not be 100% accurate but they should give an overall insight on average salary levels across European Union member countries.

Countries are ranked by average gross salary in 2020

Oskars Kalpaks Museum and Memorial Place "Airītes"

25 June, 2020 | Museums | 16 seen

Oskars Kalpaks Museum and Memorial Place "Airītes" is a branch of the Latvian War Museum established in memory of the hero of the Latvian War of Independence Colonel Oskars Kalpaks in "Airītes", Zirņi Parish, Saldus Region.

On March 6, 1919 during the liberation battles of Latvia, colonel Oskars Kalpaks, commander of the First Latvian Special Battalion; Nikolajs Grundmanis, the First Commander of the Battalion's Special Company; Peteris Krievs, Lieutenant-General of the Cavalry Squad and Johans-Hans Srinders, Lieutenant of the Baltic Home Guard Artillery died near Airites.

Airītes

From 1922-1933 monuments in remembrance of the four heroes were unveiled here, and the Oskars Kalpaks Memorial was opened in 1936. During the Soviet occupation, the Airites Museum and memorial ensemble were closed down. The memorial was reopened in 1988, and the renovated museum opened its doors in 1990. The museum's exhibition shows the role of Oskars Kalpaks and his battalion during the liberation battles