Friday, September 25, 2009

Red Dawn


I arrived back home last night from my week in Sydney with MOTH waiting for me at the Airport, vacuum cleaner in hand, ready to remove the 2 inches of red dust topsoil that I had bought back with me. Wednesday was a truly awesome day in the Harbour city, I woke early at 5am. to find my hotel room enveloped in this weird red-orange dawn light. Even though we were tucked up inside, as the day progressed my eyes became dry & irritated & my throat prickly. The wind was so strong & whipped the air around ferociously. One of my colleagues commented it was like being on a movie set for an apocalyptic film about the end of civilization due to nuclear holocaust or some other general catastrophe. And as this person is generally the 'Class Clown', I was concerned.

Thank you to everyone who left messages of concern. My cell phone ran riot as well, with family & friends enquiring after my well-being on Wednesday. MOTH suggested I change my phone message to 'Hi this is Millie - cough, cough, splutter, splutter!'.
Image: The Times

21 comments:

  1. Oh Millie, this must have been so wierd. My friend Liz was off to Sydney on Wednesday but the plane turned back because of the dust storm. She did get away on Thursday, so I hope all is going ok.

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  2. What an amazing picture. Mr DJ was in Sydney during the week on business too, interesting to say the least.
    xxx

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  3. Millie,

    Pleased to hear that you survived the storm. We saw it on the news and could not believe it, it was a little out of this world.

    Leeann x

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  4. That must have been such a wierd and eerie experience Millie. Glad that you are safe and sound!

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  5. Dear Millie,
    great photo! it might have been strange but it sure looks amazing! i saw it on the news and it looked hard to breath. Have a sweet weekend,
    Rosa

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  6. Oh Millie. I was thinking of you, when Julie was telling me of her dangerous and 'interesting' journey to work. I thought that, maybe your plane was grounded, but you obviously made it.....I guess that you will put it down to experience and it will be great for after dinner stories.So pleased that you are home, safe and sound. XXXX

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  7. Hey Millie
    I will be cleaning up for weeks. My home, car, garage.. everything has been infiltrated by the red beast... even my pc!! Believe we have another one on it's way tomorrow! Not FUN x Julie

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  8. Sunrise was truly amazing - a blood red sky and gale force winds. Apart from filthy windows and cars to clean, our biggest cleaning job for the weekend is the West Highland Red Terriers - they are both a very unattractive red colour! Leigh

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  9. What a beautiful and fascinating shot.

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  10. You know what...you deserve an award! Stop by when you have some time. xo Lisa

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  11. Sydney does know how to turn on an impressive show Millie....xv

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  12. wow- have never sen or heard of anything like that- amazing- glad all came out well!

    Karen

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  13. When I traveled to Dubai this year, there was a sand storm and it was strange. I can only imagine what it would have looked like if the sand was red.

    Glad you are home safe and sound.

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  14. Hi Millie,

    Must have felt like you were on a movie set. Beautiful, but sorry that it hurt your eyes and throat.
    My niece's flight was delayed for two hours, when she was flying over to NZ.

    It must be lovely to be back home.
    Happy weekend
    Hugs
    Carolyn

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  15. Oh my goodness Millie, what a week to be in Sydney......I did think of you and wonder how you would get back home.

    Just glad you are home safe and well :)

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  16. Hi Millie, and here comes the dust again in Brisbane,hard to believe there is any dirt left in S.A. its just amazing...and so very dry....J

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  17. Hi Millie, Wow, I've never seen anything like it. Good to hear that your home, safe and sound. xoTrina

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  18. Even though this natural phenomena is not fun to live through... you must admit it looks quite spectacular!
    Glad you survived and got home safely.
    Living on the other side of the world, I feel cheated when I miss these opportunities... being a Sydney girl! And my kids feel the same... they wished they were there!
    Have a great weekend.
    xx

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  19. This looks so scary! I hope you are all ok!!!!!! and breathing fine!

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  20. Oh it was apocolyptic indeed.. I remember waking around 5 am and looking at a sky that was deep orange, my first through was bushfire but being embedded deep in the heart of the city that seemed unlikely and then I wondered vaguely if the world had somehow ended or altered overnight. In my mind I dismissed it as some strange effect of the sunrise dispersed through a blanket of white clouds and watched its colours shift through to deep red, back to orange and down into a pretty lemony, white then pink...
    With windows open there was lots and lots of cleaning to do

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  21. So strange. Did you ever figure out what was causing it. That would have really freaked me out.

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And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
~W.H. Auden

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