It was a very hot, yet cloudy day yesterday. Even after raining heavily in the evening it still felt very hot outside, I attributed it to the amount of bubbly flowing through me but when I woke up at around 6am a mate had sent me a text: “go outside, take pictures, never seen sky so red and I can’t even see the next building”. Went outside, was very red and had a weird smell to it, like the one you get from smoke machines in clubs (or apparently my housmate has one lying around in the shed, “just in case”). Thought that it’s the department of burn-off again clearing a big patch of bush and went back to bed, closed the window, not to inhale whatever it was in the air.

On my way to work couple of hours later it felt really weird, the streets were red, all the cars covered in some fine substance and people wearing white masks. “Fish flu or another weird sounding scare?”, “Some military experiment gone sour?”, “Wait, wasn’t there a big rave going on last night, did they unleash the mother of all atomic smoke machine bombs?”

Turns out my friends back at home knew the answer before I did. Big weather had moved lots of hot air and dust from South Australia and inland NSW to Sydney. How boring. Although even the locals haven’t seen anything like this before.

In other news, I got my visa extended till November next year and will start a permanent contract with the company I’m working for, participating in an ocean sailing race on Saturday, trying to convert my pilots license and having in general an awesome time.