#notarecipepost

We had heard that this time around the winters will be harsh. Till December it kind of looked like every other year. Expected cold at night and warm in the day. But from the new year onward Pune seems to be under a spell of massive cold. The last couple of days has been exceptionally cold. Super windy throughout the day and the air feely icy. Yesterday around noon suddenly there was a weird kind of haze all around. It looked as if a layer of fog was spreading. But fog at 12 PM seemed a bit out of the place. I thought it might be smoke but then it remained the same way all through the rest of the day. So that possibility was also ruled out.

It was only from today morning's paper I found out that Pune was hit by a dust storm. In one of the rare instances, the city has been shrouded by a strong dust storm that originated from Saudi Arabia and the air quality index became poorer than that of Delhi. I remember something similar happened last or last to last year when there was a dust storm in Rajasthan and it carried all the way to Maharashtra. 

It feels so cold now a days that it seems as if Christmas has come back and it might start snowing anytime! I am not kidding you. When I stepped out in the balcony today morning, I felt frozen instantly. The air was so cold it reminded me of when I was in Omaha and it was nearly 0 degrees outside, I felt shivers even after being inside a puffy long coat.  We were staying in Marriot Omaha for a business trip and I had to step out to get some fruits and bread from the nearby Whole Food market. It was unbelievably cold outside, I felt my nose becoming numb and face turning red in the short 5 minutes walk to the store. That night we had snow. Thus when I felt the same kind of numbing feeling on my nose in the morning I jokingly told this friend of mine, that if it starts snowing tomorrow I am not going to be surprised. Well the surface temperature of Venna lake (Mahabaleshwar) did almost reach 2 degrees last week after all!

With the omicron and the cold wave weekend plans now mostly look like being at home and binge watching some good movie. This time it was Happy Potter Reunion. I had been meaning to see it from the time it was promoed, watchlisted it in January first week and finally could make it this weekend. The teenage starcast of the movie looked so different from the last time we saw them in the 7th part - more matured and elegant now. The special traces the franchise’s journey through all eight movies, making callbacks to particularly beloved movie moments and staging recreations of elaborate sets for the actors to marvel at together as they reminisce. 

But half way through I got so nostalgic that I switched to watching the actual movies to to corelate to what the actors were reminiscing about. And I have noticed a peculiarity of the Harry Potter movies - your perspective & understanding of some of the events happening in the movie transforms when you watch it at various ages. But I discovered no matter what the given age is, I always love to watch the series and get glued to it. And out of the 8 parts I think the first two part will always remain as my favorites as these two movies make me feel the childlike innocence and wonder associated with a fairytale wizarding world.

With the grand feasts going on in the movie, I was super tempted and needed something to satiate my cravings. So I got these gorgeously sinful red velvet pastries delivered from Sweet Truth. Don't laugh but this was the very first time I tasted a red velvet pastry/cake and I was blown away! I don't know why I never tried red velvet earlier but I should have. I have had the chocolate pastries form the same brand earlier but this particular pastry was really really good. And they were so pretty that I could stop myself from shooting them with a Christmas themed setup. Its shot in artificial light in the evening and I loved the way it turned out post edit. The cold winter evening turned into a magical one with Chamber of Secrets and the slice of Red velvet pastry. Enjoy the pictures.