Blog Archive: December 2019
Georgian Museum of Fine Arts
Georgian Museum of Fine arts is located on Rustaveli avenue just opposite to Tbilisi parliament building. The museum has been opened for public just recently at the end of 2018. It is interesting to note that currently, it is the only building in Georgia built purposely to house art exhibitions.The museum houses over 3500 artworks, created by over 80 artists during the last 70 years. The museum exhibits private art collection of the family of Dr. George (Gia) Jokhtaberidze and Manana Shevardadze, founders of Magticom, the largest telecommunications company in Georgia.There is an entrance fee of GEL 15 (2019), we paid a half-day long visit here in early November 2019. There…
Lecco town in Italy
Lecco is a small city in northern Italy, some 50 kilometers (31 mi) north of Milan. The city lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como.The Bergamo Alps rise to the north and east, cut through by the Valsassina of which Lecco marks the southern end.We visited the town of Lecco for a couple of hours in mid-November 2019, during a week trip to Italy/Switzerland. Really stunning.Como lake near LeccoThe lake narrows to form the river Adda, so bridges were built to improve road communications with Como and Milan.There are four bridges crossing the river Adda in Lecco: the Azzone Visconti Bridge (1336–…
Grand Hotel Del Parco - Bergamo Airport
The Grand Hotel is a modern, peaceful hotel set in parkland just 6 km from Bergamo.It offers air-conditioned rooms and suites, a fitness centre and free parking. A scheduled shuttle service to/from Bergamo Train Station and Orio Al Serio Airport is available on request.We booked this hotel in early November 2019, for a night after landed at Bergamo airport. Nothing fancy, but a decent 4-star hotel for budget money near Bergamo. We paid about USD 68 for a one night stay here.Grand Hotel Del Parco - Bergamo AirportEach elegant room has parquet floors, a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, a minibar, and a modern bathroom.The Hotel Grand Del Parco offers a large buffet …
Weekend trip to Baku, Azerbaijan
At the start of August 2019, we traveled to Baku Azerbaijan.
For me, this was my first time in Azerbaijan. Our trip here was in the frames celebrate a birthday in one of the former Soviet Union member country capital cities, so far we have been to Yerevan, Tallinn, Vilnius, Kyiv, and now Baku
To get here, we booked a train ticket from Tbilisi and traveled from Tbilisi central station. Before entering Azerbaijan we had to apply for an e-visa online (which has to be done some 5 days before departure).
Now, huge was our surprise arriving in Baku and trying to buy return trains tickets to Tbilisi - it turned out every ticket was sold out. We were left with no other option…
Mushtaidi Park in Tbilisi
Mushtaidi park and garden in Tbilisi is great for activities with kids - it features a Ferris Wheel, choo-choo train, carousels and more. The entrance in the park is free, but there is a fee for carrousels. Park is well maintained and quite popular among locals. I first discovered this park a couple of years ago while cycling around Dinamo arena. Sculptures at Mushtaidi parkThe Mushtaidi is one of the oldest parks in Tbilisi and was founded in the 1930s. The first garden on the site of 5 hectares was opened by Mir Fetekh-Agha Seyed Tavrizi, who arrived in Georgia from Iran in 1828. He was a religious leader of the Shiites in Azerbaijan in Iran. The name of…
Azcot Hotel in Baku
Set in a 19th century building on Fountain Square, Azcot Hotel is located in the heart of Baku and offers air-conditioned rooms with a flat-screen satellite TV. It features a 24-hour front desk and free parking on site.We booked Azcot Hotel for a one night stay (actually paid for two nights) in early August 2019, and paid for our stay about USD 120. We booked two nights because we had a plane back to Tbilisi in seconds night evening, not willing to spend the whole day on legs we booked two days.The building and location where hotel is located is great. The service is OK, the interior is old and asks for renovation.The stay at Azcot hotel partially reminded me a stay a couple of years…
Georgian Parliament Building in Tbilisi
The Parliament of Georgia Building is located in Tbilisi on Rustaveli Avenue, close to the foothills of Mount Mtatsminda.The building complex was constructed as the House of Government of Georgian SSR on the site of the demolished 19th-century Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.For those of you interested in Soviet Architecture, here you go another cool object of interest in Tbilisi. See: Brutal Tours - Explore Soviet Georgian Architecture in TbilisiThe complex consists of two buildings; the "upper" building was designed by Viktor Kokorin and Giorgi Lezhava and built from 1933 to 1938. The "lower" building, along Rustaveli Avenue, was constructed by the same…
How To Enable Google Adsense ads.txt file for Drupal on Nginx
Around early September 2019, in my Google AdSense dashboard, I noticed a warning informing me to create a separate ads.txt file.
I followed the on-screen instruction and did what was asked.
After two months (at the start of November) I noticed my earnings from Google AdSense have dipped more than half and the warning was still there.
Earnings at risk - You need to fix some ads.txt file issues to avoid severe impact to your revenue.
Authorized Digital Sellers, or ads.txt is an IAB initiative that helps ensure that your digital ad inventory is only sold through sellers (such as AdSense) who you've identified as authorized. Creating your own ads.txt file gives you more…
Tavada Restaurant in Baku
Tavada restaurant is another fine example fo great Azerbaijani cuisine and service. Located on Mardanov Brothers street this place serves fine Azerbaijani and European cuisine.Discovered in early August 2019, during a weekend trip to Baku.Kid friendly - got a baby chair for our 13-month old daughter + asked to make mashed potatoes for herMashed potatoes especially for babiesLovelyDolma with a yogurt sauceIf there is a reason to visit Azerbaijan, then it' s because of DolmaChicken and veal kebabs at Tavada restaurant in Baku
November 2019 Dividend Income Report - $260.41
Welcome to the thirty-first (#31) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in November 2019.Last November we spent a week in Italy and Switzerland. Traveling with a 16-month old might be complicated but we did it actually quite nice - Lake Como in Italy, Lugano in Switzerland. Quite a tranquil trip. Highly recommend.Lugano, SwitzerlandThe last November was better than expected in terms of dividend income but was a total catastrophe for my options trades.At the end of the month, I have collected $260.41 from dividend stocks and Mintos peer to peer lending platform. Compared to the…
My First Iron Condor Trade - Lessons Learned
This article has been in the blog's draft section for a couple of months and as it still bears some useful information I decided to publish as it is with little comments at the end.On August 13, 2019 I made my first Iron Condor trade - I sold following IC SPY AUG 14'19 294 / 284 / 293 / 283.5 @ 0.51This trade was with a 1 day to expiration (DTE), I collected 51 USD from this trade, and paid in fees 9.6 USD (Interactive Broker charges each direction, and Iron Condor consists from 4 legs - 2 puts and 2 calls)Opening Iron Condor trade Interactive BrokersEverything seemed good, except market quickly moved against me and SPY reached 293 just some 15 minutes after I entered this trade, and…