seeing Sydney in a different light

Sydneysiders are usually blessed with beautiful blue skies year-round.
Today, however, they (we) woke up to quite an unusual (and initially downright terrifying) sight: a warm orange glow penetrated into my bedroom window when the alarm went off just before 7AM. Realising it was a bit late for sunrise (and mos certainly too early for sunset) I half-consciously grabbed my camera and stumbled sleepily to the verandah, from which the backyard was barely visible.
As the radio was playing REM's It's the end of the world as we know it, I put the kettle on, in hope that a cup of tea would help me make sense of what I was witnessing.

Hitting the sreets it quickly became apparent that, unsurprisingly, the Asian population was first to whip out the face masks. However, it's fair to say that the vast majority of pedestrians had wrapped a scarf around their nose and mouth, were holding handkerchiefs in front of their faces or found some other way of minimising the amount of fine dust particles they would inevitably inhale. A commuter myself, I was joined by a large number of would-be drivers who decided to follow their better judgement and leave their cars at home in favour of public transport, either to protect their engines from the dust or to avoid the havock on major roads caused by drivers inching along the dense traffic (and dense air) at walking speed with visibility reaching a record low of of less than 200m at peak hour. Rather eerielie, major landmarks which usually adorn the harbourside were swallowed entirely by the ubiquitous dust much to the amazement of regular commuters (and the chagrin of snap-happy tourists).

As I sit here writing this, a good 12 hours later (and marginally more awake), the southern winds have picked up and it is now possible to walk outside and breathe (reasonably) deeply. Tabletops, shelves, chairs, CDs, the carpet, sofa, bed and everything inbetween are covered in a thin but pervailing sheet of dust, which seems to have penetrated the sealed windows and doors we all were sure to shut before leaving home. By the looks of it, children will be going back to school tomorrow, it will once again be safe for asthmatics and the elderly to go to walk up the road to the local corner stores, and planes will once again be departing from Sydney Airport. Normality (and visibility) will return once again to the harbourside city ~ unlikely to witness such a spectacle for another few decades to come.