Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Under A Bloody Sun

I've been in a habit of waking up earlier than I need to for the past week or so, instead of 7am I've been waking up at 5.50, 6.05... any number of really, really too early times. So when I woke up too early again this morning, I cracked an eye open and saw bright orange light against my window blinds. "Wow, bright sunrise." I thought and rolled over to try and catch some more zzzzzzs.

Except, an hour later the light was still bright orange.



This is how Sydney looks this morning. Early this morning gale force winds drove a huge dust storm of red dust in that has blanketed the city. A 'once in a lifetime event' the morning news shows are calling it. Everything looks surreal, like the city has been blanketed in bright orange fog. I nipped outside briefly to see what was going on, and I could feel the dust in the air in my eyes and the back of my throat.

They are recommending anyone who can should stay indoors but I'm still going to try and get to work, as I don't have any ongoing respiratory issues to be overly concerned about. (Plus, I'm going to grab my camera and see if I can't get some pics of my own.) I am going to set out much earlier than normal as well, I can't imagine that our already fragile public transport system hasn't gone into complete chaos.

Wish me luck.

[Pic via The Sydney Morning Herald.]

6 comments:

John C said...

Looks weirdly apocalyptic! More photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasticbag/galleries/72157622310168099/

If I was there I'd probably take the day off and wander round taking pics.

Michael said...

Make sure to get a picture of dogs and cats living together!

Wow.

jason said...

wow...beautiful photo however!

Ur-spo said...

dear me, that does look rather ominous!

mrpeenee said...

I would be too busy running down the street shrieking "It is the End Times" to be taking any photos. But I might appear in some.

The Other Andrew said...

It was really very surreal, until you got out in it that is and the gritty (ha!) reality hit you. By late this afternoon it had pretty much blown over. Blue skies once again!