Blog Archive: July 2020
Milano Centrale railway station
Milano Centrale is the main railway station of the city of Milan, Italy, and is the largest railway station in Europe by volume. The station is a terminus and located at the northern end of central Milan.It was officially inaugurated in 1931 to replace the old central station (built 1864), which was a transit station but with a limited number of tracks and space, so could not handle the increased traffic caused by the opening of the Simplon tunnel in 1906.It was back in Summer 2003, when I first visited this place, during my hitchhiking / train travel back home from French Foreign legion (from Marseilles, France). Back then I arrived to Milano Centrale…
First DJI Mavic Mini Aerial photography (Lisi Lake / Tbilisi)
At the end of July 2020, I finally received my DJI Mavic Mini here in Tbilisi, Georgia.
I was very eager to test it out, and one of the first spots to test DJI Mavic mini, which come to my mind was the Lisi lake.
As our daughter has a preschool in that area, it was agreed to make the first test flight with this little drone near the Lisi lake.
DJI_0001 officially first drone photography at the Lisi lake
Not the best shot, obliviously, as the first flight was more about learning the controls
Author of this blog captured in action
Flying a drone is a lot of fun, no doubts
Lisi lake in Tbilisi from about 30-40 meter heights
The drone kept saying that…
Vine Yard Restaurant in Kvareli
Restaurant Vine Yard in Kvareli is located just next to the city walls fortress opposite to the Kvareli Public service hall building. This place serves typical Georgian cuisine, VISA accepted. This restaurant has been our radar since late 2018, when we discovered this place while stayed at Kvareli Eden hotel, we have been heading here ever since, when in the area. \Typical Georgian Supra at Restaurant Vine yard in KvareliSimple, tasty, and quite affordable. Our total bill here some GEL 70 for mcvadi, French fries, badrijani, coffees, lemonades and more.
Sevsamora Resort & Spa
Sevsamora Resort & Spa is located in the village/town of Saguramo, some 15 minutes drive from Tbilisi.We booked a family room for a 2-night stay here in the middle of June 2020, paying about GEL 600 (USD 200), with free breakfast included.The main reason for us coming here was the proximity to Tbilisi and the outdoor swimming pool for our baby girl. Sevsamora Resort & SpaAmong the facilities at this property are a 24-hour front desk and room service, along with free WiFi throughout the property. The property provides both outdoor and indoor pool, a garden and rooms with pool views.Outdoor terrace with spectacular viewsTbilisi City is 30 km from the resort. The nearest…
Restaurant 'Vero Cinese' Milan (via Boscovich)
Restaurant 'Vero Cinese' is located on Boscovich street in Milan, Italy. This place serves Chinese cuisine. We had a chance to dine here in November 2019, during our few day trip to Italy, with stop in Milano. I find it always interesting browsing through the travel photos and finding these places on map. It wasn't hard to map Ristorante Vero Cinese.Restaurant 'Vero Cinese' Milan (via Boscovich)We were traveling with our toddler baby girl, so we ordered something toddler friendly.The staff speaks excellent Italian, but little English. This was not our typical Tbilisi Chinese restaurant, this was totally different. Some dumplings and Chinese teaSoup with egg
Kindzmarauli Church and Monastery
Kindzmarauli church and monastery complex is located in the region of Kakheti, some 3 km off from the main road (Road 43 Telavi - Kvareli)We discovered this small monastery complex while driving from the Lopota lake resort to the town of Kvareli at the start of June 2020. There is a linden tree right at the monastery, my better part gathered some linden flowers to make a tea latter in the winter. The surrounding area of the Kindzmarauli churchRoses, mountains and vineyards.Bell tower at Kindzmarauli churchWe didn't actually visit the church this time.
Kapiloni Restaurant in Telavi
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 lakeKapiloni restaurant serves typical Georgian cuisine for quite affordable pricesOjakhuri at Kapiloni restaurantOjakhuri is the generic name for meat (usually pork) and fried potatoes. Chicken barbeque
Hotel Berna Milan
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' MilanHotel Berna in MilanThe Berna Hotel serves a large, continental breakfast buffet including fresh fruit, pastries and a selection of teas…
White Cherry Jam
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…
Buenos Aires (Milan Shopping Street)
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 ItalyCorso Buenos AiresCorso 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…
Tbilisi Sea Club
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 clubIts said the club is working from June until mid-September. During the 2020 season working hours were 9-21People getting tan on floating decksOn the day we visited it (Saturday, June 20, 2020) it was a very hot and sunny day, the place was pretty crowded. …
How To Add CAPTCHA Protection to Drupal 8 Webform
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…
Restaurant Imeruli Ezo
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 MchadijvariInside yard at Imeruli EzoIn direct translation from Georgian to English - Imeruli Ezo - means - Imeretian yard. And yes they are serving here Imeretian style food.The food at Imeruli EzoWe ordered some salads, mcvadi, badrijani, Turkish Coffee, and some Georgian lemonades.
How To Create a Custom Drupal 8 Theme based on Bootstrap
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:
core: 8.x
type: theme
base theme: bootstrap
name: 'OptionsBrew'
description: 'A custom Drupal Bootstrap 3…
Happy Kids Saldus
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 SaldusWe 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 areaPlayground for the little ones (toddlers)
June 2020 Dividend Income Report - $82.11
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…