blamebrampton: 15th century woodcut of a hound (Default)
blamebrampton ([personal profile] blamebrampton) wrote2009-09-23 06:04 pm

I can't believe ...

... that someone planned the apocalypse and forgot to send me a memo!

Sydney this morning: 


(Shamelessly lifted from a Flickr gallery, go here to see the whole set, especially the Bondi one!)

When I put out the green waste bin this morning at ungodly o'clock, I looked up and saw a red glow in the sky. Being well used to this Australian business by now, I sniffed, but there was no tang of burning eucalypt in the air. Nor did it turn out to be the lightspeople at the Sportsground playing silly buggers. By the time I had been to bed and woken up again, the full horror had rolled in and the city was under a thick, gritty cloud.

That, my friends, is the desiccated remains of the topsoil New South Welsh farmers once used to grow things in back in the days when it rained in the bush.

After yesterday's brief coastal rain – the first in months, mind – nature clearly decided to remind we city folk that the drought is going quite well, thanks (I believe we've had a grand total of six months of non-drought in the last 13 years, dam levels are reported on the news of an evening) and so picked up thousands of tonnes of dust and dumped it on the coast.

I have been out walking about in it all day. The last time I was this filthy, I had just been swimming in a mud puddle!

People have been amusing, though. Two girls on the train behind me were chatting:

Girl one: It's just diabolical, cataclysmic, end of days stuff!
Girl two: Did you hear there was an earthquake in Melbourne yesterday?
Girl one: I have a theory that the planet's had enough and wants us to bugger off ...

People in Australia become eco-conscious from a sheer sense of oppression. When your environment constantly wants to burn, flood or boil you, you eventually throw your hands in the air and shriek 'All right! I will recycle!'

Of course, having said that, the green waste collectors did not pick mine up, bastards.

As to the laptop, wholly dead, I am afraid. They think they can retrieve the data, I have bought a new one for $300 more than the price of the replacement part. Let us not speak of it.

[identity profile] faynia.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 01:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Om nom top soil goodness.

Macs have they battery life of a champion. I'm sure you'll love it. Even if it is a pain having to get everything back to the way you like it.


Time to go back to bed. This is what I get for staying up after telling my professor I won't make it in because I feel like hell.
Edited 2009-09-23 13:11 (UTC)

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe my old one was always evil? It only ever had 2 hrs. *Looks forward!*

Sleep and get well, or at least well rested!

[identity profile] jigglykat.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 03:34 pm (UTC)(link)
It looks like you're on Mars or something. Is it at least dying down a bit?

I not-so-frequently get a phone call from my parents just to inform me that it's raining at home (they're in Southern California, I'm in NYC). They're having an awful drought as well, while I'm here, complaining how summer was ruined by all the rainstorms.
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[identity profile] rickey-a.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 03:43 pm (UTC)(link)
woah! [livejournal.com profile] iamshadow posted some crazy arse orange world pics yesterday. Freaky. Feels like you expect to look up and see a Dark Mark in the sky.

[identity profile] pingrid.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
OMFG, that is truly scary. It's a good thing global warming isn't real, or it might have been even worse!

[identity profile] spacefragments.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
motherfucking whoa. so stealing those for painting refs.

[identity profile] aldehyde.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
i've been checking out the pics all day and they're pretty fabu :D we used to get frequent dust and sand storms in kuwait [obviously, hee] so the pics have been bringing back a lot of childhood memories of waking up and wondering why the entire world outside my windows was shades of yellow and orange ;)
arcanetrivia: a light purple swirl on a darker purple background (Default)

[personal profile] arcanetrivia 2009-09-23 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
That, my friends, is the desiccated remains of the topsoil New South Welsh farmers once used to grow things in back in the days when it rained in the bush.

OMG. :O

[identity profile] enchanted-jae.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
That's scary stuff; stay safe.

[identity profile] annes-stuff.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 10:25 am (UTC)(link)
Bathing and napping is good, but I would still like a phone call for the sake of catching up!

The dust storm didn't hit until after I got into work which was a plus and while there was still a bit of stuff in the air it was quite safe to drive home at the end of the day.

That bear was handsewn by a good mate of mine. We were all at a party one night and he confessed to us that he made handsewn teddy bears for gifts. I replied "So, where is mine?". As you know a suffer from not owning a cat and have a particular fondness for ginger cats, so he made a hand sewn teddy bear from faux ginger cat fur. I was rather happy with it.

I had a lot of fun with the biff on Monday so glad I finally got my but into gear and have a complete kit.

Oh, and it turns out I will be at Spring War, I will be driving down Friday and coming back sometime on Sunday or Monday.....
ext_36413: JB AND JACKBEAR (Default)

[identity profile] absdax.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
WOH! thats ORANGE! kinda freeky! but cool pic none the less!!!

[identity profile] ladyjaneva.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
So scary and beautiful and unreal all at the same time!

Just think of the stories you'll be able to tell your children or other children in the family ;-)

Go out and buy an additional external hadrdrive right now! It's worth the money. I got mine after a similar experience, and at least the most important things are safe.

Canberra

[identity profile] dookadook.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Have been in Canberra the past couple months, but we got it down here as well. I walked to the shops in it and had to wear my bloody ski goggles cause my poor eyes can only take so much dirt. After each 10 min leg of the journey there and back I had to stop and blow my nose to be able to breath through it. My housemate was cruel as she whinged about how dry and dusty her throat was before remembering that she'd brought a bottle of water. After taking a sip and gagging, with the choked comment "Now it's just more muddy", I ended up with the last laugh. Serves her right, I think, we take our water seriously here in Australia. Did you guys get rain during your dust storm? We did, in the late afternoon we had a short downpour that helped clear the dust from the air but that's only cause it literally attached itself to raindrops to fall as orange mud. I've never felt dirtier after standing in the rain.

[identity profile] dookadook.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 06:11 pm (UTC)(link)
It rained in Canberra during our dust storm. The rain was a red-orange. Does that count as blood?


Maybe for vegetarians?

[identity profile] ldydark1.livejournal.com 2009-09-26 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Its amazing what mother nature can do.
Frightening, makes the human element
feel so small. Some talk about the
earth changes. Weird weather.
Stay safe and look out for yourself.
The pictures were amazing but scary.

[identity profile] rubyemerald-1.livejournal.com 2009-09-26 07:51 am (UTC)(link)
Woman who doesn't know about light refraction would be apoplectic by now.

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-26 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I laughed so loudly when I read that, Mr Brammers came out to check I was all right. Your comic timing is GENIUS!

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-26 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
We had another, smaller, dust storm today, which I was able to mostly stay out of. A few days of general snottiness followed Wednesday's appalling air, but I'm happily in good health for the most part, so all's well.

On the upside, it's actually reminded everybody of how appalling our climate is. A poll was done on Thursday about how concerned people were for the environment and the figures were well up on the usual.

And it was beautiful. Not the most beautiful sky I have seen in Sydney: that was in 1994 when I was still fresh and there were fires ringing the city. It was wholly apocalyptic, but unimaginably gorgeous.

Re: Canberra

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-27 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh it would have been so much grittier for you! The air down there seems to have larger particles for some reason, just as the air in Sydney seems greasier.

And no, no rain during or since, so everything is still grimy. Rain of blood does not sound appealling, though give the locusts have been back, I shouldn't be surprised ;-)

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-27 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
The tragic thing is that I own one, but I am horribly slack about scheduling backups. I have now scheduled a weekly backup, and am emailing myself fics as I finish new sections. I CAN be taught!

And the natural disaster story collection I have amassed in Australia may require me to actually have, or adopt, some children ;-)

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-27 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
It was Mars Red earlier in the day, wholly nuts!

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-27 01:27 pm (UTC)(link)
We had another, smaller dust storm yesterday. Gruesome for the lungs, and apocalyptic in colouring (though nowhere near as bad as Wednesday), but the city was actually safer than usual, as everyone was so weirded out by the whole thing that they drove more sensibly and acted more circumspectly.

Which leads me to believe the actual end of the world may be very very polite ;-)

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-27 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
It is insanely dry here. Though it rained over last summer and autumn, so at least there's water in the dams, which is more than could be said a year ago!

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-09-27 01:31 pm (UTC)(link)
It was quite thoroughly bonkers! The big difference to me between this and a sandstorm was the fineness of the particles. I am used to being able to feel the grit and knowing to draw a veil or scarf across my face. This was so fine that there was no 'feel', until you had spent a few minutes in it and needed water, and to cough, and suddenly felt your skin was unspeakably grimy.

At least it wasn't a bushfire!
arcanetrivia: a light purple swirl on a darker purple background (Default)

[personal profile] arcanetrivia 2009-09-28 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I just keep thinking of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression in the US... :-/

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