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Greetings from Scotland! Over the past week, we've been making the most of the school break by travelling to this beautiful part of the world. We've explored Edinburgh…
As of October 16, 2026, our options-selling-powered dividend stock portfolio stood at $13,456, marking a weekly decline of 1.37% compared with the previous week.This…
As of October 9, 2026, our options-selling-powered dividend stock portfolio stood at $13,643, showing a decent weekly increase of +0.72% compared with the previous week.…
We booked hotel Guerrini in Venice for New Years night (2016), because of it's location - Located just off the characteristic Venetian street of Lista di Spagna and 400 m from Santa Lucia Railway Station, Hotel Guerrini offers free Wi-Fi and simple air-conditioned rooms.
Now the biggest surprise was to learn out, that heating in our room didn't worked (seems it didn't worked for all the hotel), so called simple air conditioner also didn't helped much (it constantly showed +17C). Bathroom (for the price paid) was a parody (small, narrow)... I could complain of this place a lot, but probably that's just the way how they treat tourists in city center, right? Ask high price and…
Now, when you are familiar with part 1 and part 2, it's time to tell the third part on home remodeling series replacing roofing.
Today's roof replacing adventures were about the most dangerous so far (with happy ending). It all started in quiet August morning, when I get up earlier, to remove old roofing, so we can continue our works on leveling beams and dragging over crosswind sheet latter that day. I was waiting help (brother and dad) to arrive around a noon, so I had a plenty of time to excel my demolisher skills.
Today we faced unpleasant discovery, we had to remove atop of the chimney so the roof would be in one straight level (more on that bellow)
Wooden boards…
It was second day morning when we re-started works on roof replacing. If you haven't already red, read Part 1: Removing Old Roof.
The idea was simple - if we are going to replace roofing, we will follow latest trends, and one of them involves using a crosswind sheet, which protects both against wind and humidity, I bought some super expensive crosswind sheet for about EUR 200 to cover in total about 180m2.
Since we were replacing roofing by parts today we had to drag a crosswind beam over leveled beams and add lathing.
Measuring crosswind sheet
Yup, the surrounding views are amazing
Leveled beams
As you can see, its just one fourth of total work done yet (not…
We were of to Tbilisi streets looking for Valentine's day photography, when I concluded - Valentine's day, thus not popular in Republic of Georgia, makes some good for local economy - first of all for local flower markets, second for cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants. We made a dozen of photos today, experimented with black and white, panorama and other photography techniques. Tbilisi didn't seemed too busy on celebrating Valentine's day, but we found some interesting scenes in Old Town and local flower market. This is how we saw Valentine's day was celebrated in Tbilisi, 2016, Piece of Life after all.Happy Valentine's day in shop windowsWhere is she?Children playground near…
I first visited Rabati Fortress in Akhaltsikhe, Republic of Georgia, in Summer of 2014, during a two day rafting drive on river Mtkavri, next time we booked a lovely hotel inside fortress complex at the start of 2015, during our stay here I created a lot of pictures and crafted an article about Rabati fortress Castle featuring 48 pictures. (You think its a lot? I have an article from Keukenhof's tulip garden in the Netherlands with 136 images).
At the end of 2015 we visited this site for the third time, I was armored with a DSRL camera, tripod and knowledge of taking HDR pictures.
Rabati fortress complex in Georgia
The above image gained some popularity on Flickr, and after all…
We went to Venice on New Year's Eve (2015/2016), for me as a beginner photographer it was a great challenge to photograph here. I prepared well (brought tripod and practiced a lot previously) but I made a huge mistake this night, I messed up with the clock (Flying from country to country is a mess with time, so I have stopped to look in watch when traveling), so we went out for a New Years fireworks one hour earlier. This extra hour resulted in a very cold and unpleasant weather and in aftermath we just got sick.
Venice in fact didn't seemed very tourist friendly place, when we arrived here from Florence, the huge surprise we learnt was with…
Florence is a destination to head for if you are looking for renaissance art. Florence is famous for its history: a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, it is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages"In today's Piece of Life photo series - Postcards from Florence, taken at the end of 2015View towards FlorenceIf you are new to Florence and might wonder where are the best points to photography the city, get to the Michelangelo Square, from this place all Florence is on your palm. I installed a tripod here and played a bit with camera…
Sergos Duqani is a lovely restaurant in Akhaltsikhe, serving traditional Georgian cuisine. Located just in the footsteps of Rabati Fortress complex.
We first discovered and met lovely owners of this place, when stayed in hotel in Rabati (Hotel Rabath & Gino Wellness) and were looking for some local place to have dinner. Frankly speaking sashlik served here is among the best I have ever tried in Georgia (and price for them are ridiculously low - about 6 lari per skewer.)
Segos Duqani restaurant in Akhaltsikhe, Georgia
Menu items at Sergo Duqani restaurant
Inside interior
Turkish coffee
Soup Ostri
Sashlik on grill
Sashlik on…
Hello everyone and welcome to another post from my experiments being a food blogger. OK, for following recipe I wasn't actually preparing that tasty dolma, instead I experiment with new food photography technique.
About food photography: Today I decided to experiment with 100mm lens and used long exposures (obliviously from a tripod). Find more tutorials on Digital Photography School
About Dolma (Grape leaves roll) - Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes common in the Middle East and surrounding regions including the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia. Common vegetables to stuff include tomato, pepper, …
I was working on my blog's native Drupal app, and decided to share my discoveries on how to create additional custom Views Json listing page and how to link it in your apps menu.
For the content on this page I decided to list all articles from my blog whose location are set to Georgia, and give it name - Georgia Travel Guide. Georgia and Drupal is special for me, so this was just logically the most "urgent" task I wanted to achieve next while building my native Drupal app.
Read more: How to develop Native Drupal app using Drupalgap - Part 1: Custom Front Page Using views - Images and Date
DrupalGap app in Ripple Emulator
Creating Views Json
I have some specific…
There was a time when I was really eager to develop native Drupal app, back then I decided to stick with Drupalgap. Now, more than a year has already passed since, and I haven't achieved my goal (s) yet.
Until recently, I decided to finish works on native Drupal app I started back in 2014. Speaking of my app - nothing fancy here, just my latest blog posts, with ability latter to extend functionality adding more native app features (geo location, for example) . As I like to call it - minimum viable product approach.
I installed DrupalGap module and all its dependencies on my site, I must admit I had some problems actually getting it alive, but they were more…
In today's digital photography school tutorial series I'll show how to create HDR panoramic photos.
Make sure you check my previous tutorials on HDR photography - How To Take and Post-Process Night HDR Images , How to Capture and Post-Process Professional HDR Photos Using HDR Efex PRO
Now, regarding panorama photos, there is not always a need to create a 180 or 360 degree panoramas, sometimes you just want to fit in your frame a little bit more than a regular shot can do, then comes in panorama technique.
HDR panorama photography
Shooting mode
A sturdy tripod is must have, also a DSRL camera is preferable. Check out: Top 13 Best digital SLR cameras of…
Located in Gudauri, a 10-minute walk from the nearest ski lift, Edelweiss Hotel features an on-site restaurant serving Georgian and European cuisine and free Wi-Fi throughout the property.We booked hotel Edelweiss for 2015 Christmas (December 23-25) and enjoyed our stay at this place a lot. Thus the price we paid for this hotel is well above average (about EUR 100 per night) we are paying for hotels in Georgia, the service offered for price was just excellent.Alternatively check out Hotel Shamo Review in Gudauri or see TOP 10 Best Gudauri hotels.Hotel Edelweiss in Gudauri, GeorgiaAs it might look like a small hotel from a distance, turns our is a 4 story building from inside. One thing I…
Though modest in size, The Gabriadze Theater is among the world’s preeminent cultural institutions. Presenting mature puppet performances full of depth and meaning, it has gained the respect and recognition of international audiences and critics alike.Located in the heart of Tbilisi Old Town, just right next to the Anchiskati church, this theater building offers some interesting architecture as well. Thus, I have never visited a spectacle here (though I have bough tickets for a few times, but due to my laziness never visited) - I believe the Gabriadze theater this is one of the top tourist attractions in Tbilisi.Gabriadze theater building in TbilisiThe Gabriadze Theater stands in the…
In today's home remodeling series I'll share some epic experience on roof replacement works. If you have been following my blog for a while, you probably have noticed that in Spring 2015 we inherited an old and very bad managed rural house.
That Summer taught me a lot - I learnt how to use a scythe to move a grass, and also excelled as a construction worker (Room One - Wall and Ceiling Painting with Water Based Paint, How to Patch and Plaster Walls in Your Old Rural House), but nothing compares to experience like actually changing a roof.
It was already more than 3 months since we started to manage this house, but we hadn't any plans to stay any longer that till the end…
House Of Food is a place to eat good, quick international food from all corners of the world. Louie Fontaine, the owner and rock musician, has designed the place with a feel similar to a 50’s American diner, with an open kitchen and restaurant booths so high you’ll sit cosy and private in your own restaurant.
Located at the canal front downtown in an old factory building - this place absolutely rocks!
Hotel Fontaine Royal in Liepāja
Fontaine Royal offers a swimming pool, health centre, conference hall, restaurant, bar and various shops. The hotel design is out of this world, full of royal furniture, all gold plated standing in contrast with the old factory spirit, you will feel like a…
Gudauri is a popular ski resort located on the southern slopes of The Greater Caucasus Mountain Range in Georgia. The resort is situated in the Stepantsminda District, along the Georgian Military Highway near the Cross Pass, at an elevation of 2,196 meters (7,200 ft.) above sea level.
We have been heading to Gudauri at least once in a year. There are few great reviews about Gudauri on my blog, Gudauri - Georgian Winter Capital for skiing, snowboarding, paragliding and heli-skiing or Gudauri - Cost Free And Fun Outdoor Activities but for today's Piece of Life photo project series I decided to share some images /…
Turtle lake is a direct English translation of Kus Tba (Georgian: კუს ტბა), a small lake at the outskirts of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, so named due to the perceived abundance of turtles living in these places.
Those of you who have been following my blog, probably have noticed I have mentioned Turtle lake a lot on my blog, I have been heading here in hot summer days to breath a fresh air and done some Drupal development from here, also I have headed here for lovely hiking treks around and up Turtle lake. Read more: Best Hikes In Tbilisi Are Located Near Turtle Lake
Turtle lake is very popular recreational area both for locals and…
Encrypted HTTPS websites are pretty much a hot topic nowadays. I have seen a lot noncommercial websites and blogs using HTTPS protocol lately. I believe cheap prices for certificates and possible SEO boost from Google are pushing more and more to add HTTPS. Including me!
In fact this article is first since my blog is HTTPS, to celebrate that I decided to write shot tutorial how you too can enable HTTPS on Ubuntu 12.04 running Nginx and optionally running a Drupal site on Linode VPS.
Install free TLS/SSL certificates
Wait, did I just said a free certificate? Totally free? No hidden costs? Yup, that's exactly what I've said, - Let's Encrypt is a new…
It was already last weeks of July, and we had bought already our return tickets back to Tbilisi, Georgia, and there was still one urgent task to complete if we wanted our rural house to survive upcoming rain and winter season - we had to replace roofing.
Oh, boy - back then I had no idea how frustrating, yet fun experience it will be. After finishing temporary repair works at home's first floor - I went upstairs and decided it's time to clean house's loft before moving on to more drastic roofing works. Instead of removing just old junk from loft, we had to remove about a ton of bricks and about 2 tons of ... soil. For some reason, the previous owner (R.I.P) decided to insulate loft with…
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