Fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties

This morning I woke to the apocalypse. At first I thought the red glow tinging the upstairs landing was a fever induced hallucination, but as I stumbled back to bed after consuming about half a gallon of water, I stopped to have a peek outside and realise that no, definitely the apocalypse.



As it turns out, Sydney was graced with the worst dust storm in the city's history. The worst comparable event of this kind happened in Melbourne in '83. The news just said kilotonnes of topsoil has been dumped over the city. Everything is covered in dust, it looks like the cars have just returned from a drive in the Outback. It was so bad this morning that you could taste the dust in the air, I didn't even venture outside but it was enough to permeate into the living room.



This tops a day of insane weather, which started with 32 degree morning, epic thunderstorm in the evening, heavy winds, and finally, red dawn. It's very impressive, if completely chaos inducing. There were health warnings issued for respiratory concerns. Public transport, traffic, and such has obviously come to a stand-still. Flights were diverted and grounded as well, I can't even imagine how those planes must look. Actually, there's money to be made here in offering a local car wash *ponders* I regret not taking my own pictures but I was simply too spaced out to even think about it, I feel a thousand times worse than yesterday and so I've spent the day drugged and comatose in turns. It's not much fun.


Here be more pics, news coverage here.

Yesterday was such a gorgeous morning so it was lovely to meet Mandy in a cafe in the park and discuss my uni work. Makes a nice change from being inside a stuffy office at uni, that's for sure. She brought her dog along and it was soooo cute. So yes, that was a lovely little outing. She gave me some good advice as well. I suppose you have to keep working if you want to improve. I had some time before meeting Em and Roze, so I thought I'd pop into a Telstra shop to see if they could fix Jasper. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The first shop gave me a heart attack by informing me they no longer stocked those phones and no longer offered my plan (even though the internet still offers it? Um, FAIL Telstra.) I refused to accept this and wandered down to the bigger store, where a query into repairing Jasper led to the purchase of an entirely new phone *headdesk* Turns out they are discontinuing the plan and no longer stock the hiptops, but they had one left, so I had to take it while I still had the chance. So, may I introduce my wholly unintentional, if so far quite pleasing, upgrade:



I debated over the name for quite some time but finally settled on Donna...cause she's red, see? She's got a few extra trimmings to Jasper, and is also thinner and lighter. She also doesn't have the weird side panels that will snap off. So yes, she has to last me a very long time, so I better look after her.

Following this unexpected drama, I was late to the movies, so I missed the start to Inglourious Basterds but I doubt I missed anything important. I think Em and I are a bit too squeamish to watch Tarantino movies in public. It's ok to squeal and hide under blankets on Roze's couch, but fellow cinema goers don't really appreciate it as much. It's very intense and quite long, but a good movie overall. Some great one-liners. I do think it lacks moral attitude, but it is Tarantino, so I suppose that's irrelevant. Also, Eli Roth looks fantastic in a tux. Following dinner, we all went our separate ways just in time to be caught in the rain. I got completely soaked walking to my car and was tempted to sit in the rain and cry. That's the kind of flu I have at the moment, the kind that just makes you want to cry.

I best go find something to eat. Followed by yet more drugs. And possibly more sleep. So much time being wasted! Sigh.

Music: NCIS
Mood: Sick