Masterclass in Asian Cuisine

20 November, 2015 | Food blogger | 9 seen

At the start of November 2015 I took a master class in Asian Cuisine. The master class happened in a lovely Georgian restaurant Sareckela in Tbilisi and was led by a gourmet chef from Russia Natalia Chvileva. You can follow Natalia on her Facebook page: Touch to Food

The reason that made me to take participation in such master class was simple - I love to cook, I enjoy Asian cuisine and I have a food blogger section on my blog. Being a food blogger means just one - I'm always learning new things and I'm happy to share my knowledge with my readers (you). This master class was not only good for learning new things in Asian cuisine but also a good practice for my digital photography school project, so I took a tripod and camera and was ready to learn new things.

And I learnt a lot.

Ingredients for Asian Cuisine master class

You can see there are a lot of sauces and actually sauces are one of the main ingredients in Asian cuisine. Also we were using soybean noodles instead of rice noodles, and we were using corn starch, I believe those were my first two discoveries in this master class. Prior to that I knew just regular noodles made from…

October 2015 Blog Traffic and Income Report 39,928 Users / $549.49

19 November, 2015 | Blogging | 7 seen

Today we are celebrating this blog's #22 traffic and income report. Unbelievable how fast times goes by. It seems just yesterday I sat at my laptop's monitor, installed Drupal on Linode VPS, registered a domain in Godaddy and started to explore is there a way I can get some traffic (back then I was not thinking about making actual money out of it) to my blog. 

On October 10, 2015 this blog celebrated its second anniversary - just wow. 2 years passed like a flicker. 

I was doing separate reviews both for traffic and income until last September, I just understood - how time consuming it is to provide 2 similar articles on related topic. Traffic and Income for any website goes hand to hand. The reason for publishing such reports and revealing secrets beyond the scenes are simple - Transparency matters. I hope my success or failures can give some ideas to you as well. On the other hand there are times when I'm planing to stop write reviews about traffic and income at all, well most probably I will do that once 100 000 user milestone will be (if) cracked. But you never know.

Back to the numbers…

Restaurant Sareckela in Tbilisi

18 November, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 12 seen

Restaurant Sarackela is located in Tbilisi on A.Tsereteli Avenue 72, it serves both European and Georgian cuisine, and has one of the most passionate chefs in the town - Natalia Chivileva. One of the nice features this restaurant offers - are master classes for kids and adults on Sundays.

This is the reason I got to this place actually, I took a master class of preparing Asian food at start of November 2015.

Restaurant Sareckela in Tbilisi

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Interior at Sareckela restaurant in Tbilisi

Restaurant Sareckela in Tbilisi

Working hours for restaurant Sareckela

Although I didn't ordered here any meal as I took a master class (for which I paid 35 Lari) and didn't see actually the menu, the one is for sure - the food here will be tasty and delicious thanks to it's great chef Natalia, she is found of seasoning and left me with an impression that she is a super gourmet - so did must be her dishes.

You can follow restaurant Sareckela on Facebook to learn more about special offers or master classes. 

Prometheus Cave near Kutaisi (Georgia)

17 November, 2015 | Tourism objects | 40 seen

Prometheus cave is one of the interesting places I have visited lately in Georgia. In fact that's the second cave I have visited here. The first one is called Sataplia Cave. In case you are into caves and speleology I recommend to visit both of them.

Prometheus cave is located some 20km from Kutaisi in village Kumistavi (Tskaltubo Municipality), and if you are arriving to this lovely city  - I can only recommend include Prometheus cave in your itinerary while being in these parts of Georgia.

And that's how it actually happened last time I were here - my mom arrived to visit me in Georgia through Kutasi international airport, and I immediately took here to the Prometheus cave. If you don't have a friend to pick you up in Georgia, take a look on these Kutaisi hotels to book your stay and arrange a tour guide from your hotel (It's ridiculously easy to arrange tours in Georgia, ask any taxi and he will take you there for some 20 lari, or you can even get there by minibus for some 1 GEL)

Prometheus cave visitor centre 

You can buy your tickets here. Price for a regular walk in group accompanied by guide - 7 GEL,…

Painting Floor - Adding Base Layer of Paint

16 November, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 17 seen

After we cleaned up our space from junk, I painted walls and ceilings in white using just a water based paint. Both our future temporary bedroom and kitchen started look decent. Then my father helped me with electrical wiring and installed a few new power outlets. Now was the right time for painting floors. I started with our bedroom. Bought the most cheapest paint available on market (brown) and started to paint.

I was hoping that for temporary solution it should be enough just with one paint layer, but I turned wrong - floor looked screwed. But that's not a big issue, because you can always add second layer of paint after the first one has dried up.

Bedroom prepared for floor painting

This is the same room I painted both walls and ceilings with water based paint. 

Adding base layer of paint

As you can see the surface of this floor is made from some plywood and the last time it has seen some paint job probably is some 30 years ago. Most probably we will change flooring for this room in future, but for now - all it asked was just a fresh paint.

Painting doors

In parallel we painted…

My Outdoor Working Place During Last Summer (2015)

15 November, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 9 seen

Owning an old rural house is nice, and it's even nicer if you can both live and work from there. Since I'm into a thing called a digital nomad (place doesn't matter as long as there is an internet connection), during last summer I had setup my working place in different corners both inside and outside of our country house.

I remember how back in 2014 we used Turtle lake for our working place in Tbilisi. 

Prior of having a basic outdoor working place there are three main important things you will need - an internet connection, a laptop and of course an electricity, speaking of the internet - in rural areas most probably you will stick with a mobile (3G/4G), you should have a phone with a built in Wi-Fi router to connect your laptop. I had both the phone, internet on it and laptop, but it took some 2 months before electricity was connected to our house.

So I'm sharing how it actually looked alike:

Laptop on the desk

Seems that in that particular moment I have been just finished an article about Andorra La Vella hotels. Andorra is among my favorite tourist destination points.…

Replacing Electrical Wiring and Installing Outlets

14 November, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 49 seen

On June 25th electricity was connected to our old rural house, and that was the next big issue to fix soon. The old electrical wiring was done like some 30-40 years ago and it just wasn't safe. Luckily I'm familiar with the best electrician, and he is my dad. So I called him and asked for both advice and assistance.

Dad seemed excited and soon he was on site, with a lot of wires, cables, screwdrivers, different unknown for me electrical measurement devices and the wiring replace works started.

Old wiring

We agreed to disconnect all the old wiring and install a new cable connecting it directly to electrical distributing point. We had to drill a few holes. In above image - white wire - the new one, black - old.

Dad in action

Preparing a safety box for electrical switches

The new wires goes through the old walls

Electrical distribution point

Next year we are planing to pull down these walls and build new ones instead for building a bathroom latter in this space. Most probably the replaced wiring will be changed at least one more time.

Electrical switches…

Homemade Noodles in Spicy Sauce

13 November, 2015 | Food blogger | 7 seen

November started with a huge goal - not to spend a tetri eating outside, instead we decided to cook good food at home. Today I will show how to prepare a really fresh egg pasta noodles in spicy sauce. 

I really love to make noodle pasta by my own - and actually it's very easy, thus a hand strength is required if you are not using some dough mixer machine. 

My recipe for noodle pasta is simple - one egg for every 100 grams flour. Today I took 7 eggs and 700 grams flour. Add a little bit salt (1 tbs) and sugar (2 tbs). 

• Add Flour to a bowl (make a small cavity to put eggs in)
• Add eggs to the flour
• Knead your pasta
• Today I spent 20 minutes of kneading this egg pasta, it required a lot of muscle strength and patience. 
• Once you have finished your pasta kneading, make a ball shape of it and put it in fridge for some 30 minutes (at least)

Preparing fresh egg pasta

We bought our macaroni machine here in Georgia some years ago already, if you don't have one, take your chances…

Abandoned Armenian Church in Tbilisi (Surb Nshan / St. Nikoghayos)

12 November, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 112 seen

Tbilisi never ends to surprise (at least me). I thought I'm quite familiar with all the places in Tbilisi's Old Town, but turned out - I was wrong. It was a Halloween eve and we decided to head to Shardeni (Tbilisi Old Town) to photograph some Halloween pictures.

Prior to that we went to lovely noodles place called Fire Wok on Shalva Dadiani street, and then just to randomize our route we decided to take a slight right turn on Lermontovs street, our first discoveries started already here, so I find a lovely Boutique art shop - Estia. 

After Estia we continued to wander through narrow Old Town's street when suddenly we ended in some yard which featured a really majestic building - as I learnt latter - Surb Nshan Armenian Church.

Abandoned Surb Nshan Armenian Church in Tbilisi

Luckily I took a tripod and I had already mastered some skills of taking night photography. See: Digital Photography school

Outside altar at Surb Nshan Armenian Church

To get a decent night exposition here I used light painting technology from a flashlight built in my phone. See how I light painted a complete…

Estia Handmade Art Boutique Shop & Masterclasses in Tbilisi

11 November, 2015 | Shopping Venues | 26 seen

It was a late October evening (It actually happened on Halloween night) when after having a delicious noodles at Fire Wok we decided to take some other route for heading into Tbilisi's Old Town. And suddenly on Lerrmontov street 3 we noticed a small boutique shop with interesting name - Estia, at first I thought maybe it's somehow related to Estonia. The sign at outdoors informed they serve a coffee here as well.

You can't buy happiness but you can buy coffee

This statement turned out to be just a half true - you can buy a coffee here, but that's actually not a coffee, but an instant coffee for 2.5 GEL - takeaway only. I was hoping for some coffee latte or Americano at least.

Instead of having a cup of coffee here I spent some time talking to the personnel of this art shop, asked different questions, like are they somehow related to Estonia? In fact they are not anyhow related to Estonia, but with some ancient Greek goddess Estia. I didn't knew of such goddess.

Estia Art Boutique shop in Tbilisi

In short you can buy here handmade painted teapots, pads, cutting boards and other stylish items.…

Our First Veggie Garden: Planting Plants in Boxes

10 November, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 8 seen

What would be a real country house without a garden? Right it would be a garden less country house. Although we have some old apple orchard and a few cherry trees there was one thing missing - some small veggie garden for our needs. 

There was one another major obstacle we didn't have any water supply at our rural country house. Read more: Home Remodeling - How It All Starts

So we opted for a small veggie garden to be planted into boxes, call it a mini sustainable agriculture if you prefer. We saved a lot of water at least, thus we were carrying about 50 liters in 5 litter bottles each day just to water our garden. Water is crucial and during this summer I actually understood the real value of water. Well for the next year we are planing to dug a well in our rural property and hopefully things will change for good. But for now we were left with what we had.

Luckily we didn't burn all the junk during our Summer Solstice celebrations, we kept a few old wooden boxes and reused them by planting some seedlings into them. Seedlings we got at Riga Central Market.

Old Wooden boxes reused for veggie garden

…

The Tiger Lillies Concert Review in Tbilisi

9 November, 2015 | Living in Georgia | 6 seen

The Tiger Lillies performed on Tbilisi Concert Hall on November 8, 2015. I must admit I had no clue what this band is all about, but had heard that The Tiger Lillies are must have. And I'm glad I agreed to visit their show in Tbilisi.

This was the second show in a row (previous one was Diana Krall's concert at the end of October 2015) I visited in Tbilisi concert hall.

First surprise arrived when we noticed that our seats was just behind tuner control

Tuner control in Tbilisi Concert Hall

What seemed an issue at start turned out to be a good place to photograph from and see in action how tuner guy works. I would say I had an option to see two shows for price of one.

Local Georgian TV Iberia taking interviews before show has started

A lot of cameras, a lot of photographer's. Speaking of photographers seems Canon EOS700d is the king of Georgian photographer's - saw a lot of them during this show. On the other hand my Canon 1200d were not far behind those expensive ones.

Ah, and yes - the beards have taken over. So many beards at one place.

The Tiger Lillies…

How to Patch and Plaster Walls in Your Old Rural House

9 November, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 13 seen

It's one of the construction works I really enjoy - to patch and plaster walls - it doesn't requires a lot of skills and it's a really cheap way to get things done fast.

Today I will show you how I patched our rural country house's kitchen walls with a plaster mix for less than $10. Prior to that I removed all the junk from the room (kitchen) and applied a base paint both for walls and ceilings. Read: Removing Junk And Adding First Layer of Paint (Kitchen Works)

Tools you will need - and old bucket (I prefer used plastic bucket leftover after paint job), a trowel and some good mix of plaster mixture. In those parts of world I'm living and plaster mixtures I'm familiar with - I prefer Rotband.

Dry plaster mixture

Our rural country house doesn't have a water (yet) so I brought some extra water to add for plaster mixture

Walls waiting to be plastered

As you can see - I have applied a base paint job already. Read more: Removing Junk And Adding First Layer of Paint (Kitchen Works)

A really damaged walls

Well, some might argue that I should probably add here a…

Shaurma Club on Tamar Mephe Street (Tbilisi)

8 November, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 18 seen

Shaurma club on Tamar Mephe street in Tbilisi is among one of the best street food places I have tried in Tbilisi and Georgia. They offer really tasty shaurma's, kabab's and they even have a salad bar.

They obey all sanitary norms (work in gloves at least) and the prices are really budget friendly.

If you enjoy street food and love shaurma's you will definitely enjoy Shaurma Club on Tamar Mephe in Tbilisi. Frankly speaking I have been living on this street for the last 2 and a half years, and Shaurma Club is a new boy on our street, prior to that, this corner of Tamar Mephe was a shady corner close to the Dezerteer Bazaar, now this is a lovely corner. 

I have this feeling that owner of Shaurma Club has some great experience in running a business, because all is covered - great service. Shaurma Club work 24/7 and offers home delivery. 

Interior at Shaurma Club in Tbilisi

At first I thought what a great technique they have used to decorate walls here, just latter I realized they have used simple wallpapers (photo wallpapers) 

Shaurma Club logo

Interior at Shaurma Club…

Abandoned Airfield Near P104 (Jaunpils-Tukums) Road (Latvia)

7 November, 2015 | Military Heritage | 29 seen

As I stated in my previous post about beautiful poppy fields near P104 Jaunipils - Tukums road in Latvia, there is a hidden treasure inside those lovely fields - an abandoned airfield. 

I doubt it has been used for any military means, more for agriculture (field spraying from a biplane).

So I headed in and here is what I got:

Abandoned airfield near Tukums

The same concrete plates for runaway structure as seen in Skrunda Abandoned Military Ghost Town

Abandoned airfield

I just love such low profile perspective photography. Grey concrete in contrast to dark blue skies.

Airfield in middle of poppy fields

This is the same poppy field I wrote before

Abandoned airfield in Latvia

I could probably do some of the photography in black and white for my digital photography school project, but I felt there is no need to add drama to this photo story.