It’s almost all dried fruits and nuts and less cake; it’s sweet, rich and the last of our plum cake from Anns Bakery, Kottayam, Kerala for this year 🍰. Their Christmas cakes comes in a pretty round tin box with five layers of wrapping – the outermost is a coloured (blue/green) cellophane cover you unwrap, after which is a plastic cover with their logo from which you pull the cake out, followed by a neat wrap of aluminium foil you unfold, then is a saran cover and finally after gently removing the butter paper, the square shaped cake emerges !

Along with devouring the last plum cake of Christmas I also packed away the Christmas decorations. December closed with commitments and expectations of grand reopenings of schools and offices in the new year. But come first week of Jan, we have retracted all the announcements of opening followed by a list of new restrictions.

Schools are to continue in online mode only; work from home is still the recommended strategy; weekend curfew; night curfew… One way it is good, the metro work along the Outer Ring Road in Bangalore has taken up most of the road, leaving only a single lane for traffic and if Bangalore gets out, the traffic will not move.

But also not good; schools remaining shut affects the kids, they need the face to face interaction. Covid 19 positive number has seen a sudden and huge surge in Bangalore and no one wants full-fledged third wave. There is the Omicron scare on one side and the good news of vaccinations for 15-18 year olds.

Life goes on and emerging from the winter slumber and back from holidays, all houses are busy with spring cleaning. I can see the bedsheets, curtains, duvet covers washed and out for drying in the sun on the balconies of the apartments in our complex. I too am in the same reset mode. Change is refreshing ! A change of cushion covers, table runners, table mats, bed-sheets etc brings a welcome cheer; newness inside; while in outside world, the scene is a repeat of the past two years !

In our apartment complex, the pool and common playgrounds have been shut; deliveries will once again be dropped off at the main gate only. One Covid 19 case has been reported in our apartment complex for now.

This sums up the first week of Jan. The weekend saw sweets from Magnolia Bakery at The Bay in Ecoworld. Their Classic Tres is a bestseller, a sponge cake soaked in a combination of three forms of milk and topped with cream and a strawberry slice 👇

Who can resist the cupcakes !? – Vanilla topped with buttercream and a drizzle of caramel and Harvest Apple topped with buttercream and a pecan nut 🧁

Till next post, take care !!