Are we in Australia or on Mars?

Woke up this morning to a crazy reddish brown sky caused by a dust storm that blanketed the city this morning. It looked like the world was about to end. People were out on the streets with masks on, or covering their faces with scarves, or other pieces of clothing; cars were covered in a film of brown dirt, as was the streets and sidewalks....all very sci-fi. I wasn't sure what was going on - whether it was just a bad smog day (didn't think Sydney was quite that polluted...) or some other catastrophe. I ventured out in it later in the morning to hit some shops, and had the girls in the shop comment on the "weird dust storm", so knew then what was going on. News says it was the worst dust storm that has ever hit Sydney. Yay us for being part of it.

I browsed around in some of the mall type shopping areas, to get indoors for a bit, and by shortly after lunch, the sky was clearing and the sun came out. Still quite windy for the rest of the day though. Wondered back to Darling Harbour (love that place, so pretty), looked around a bit, had some lunch (sweet potato, feta and pine nut pizza - soooooo goooood) and made my way back to the hotel to wait for Kevin to come home for the evening.