We woke up to a murky orange apartment Wednesday morning. Strong winds overnight- up to 100 km/hr gusts- filled Sydney with thick orange dust from the Outback. Harbour ferries shut down for the day and trucks stopped completely in some areas on the freeway. The orange light was so intense in our apartment that I thought it was a fire from the lightning storm we had the previous evening.

Downtown Kings Cross, looking even more ominous than usual.

Weather report from Wednesday: “Strong to gale force west to northwest winds, gradually easing late afternoon. Raised dust likely, otherwise fine. Cloudy.”

Otherwise fine. Right.

The landmark entrance to Kings Cross.

The last few weeks have been busy. I finally finished both iPhone applications that I was working on. The first is a Blacklight Photography application that is available in the iPhone store. The other is a secret that I will announce after it is released.

iTunes Link: itms://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=331426411&mt=8&s=143441
Link on my Home Page: http://mswebby.com/iphone/

Hayley and I are moving into a studio apartment on the 30th. It’s located in Neutral Bay, within walking distance of shops and parks. Although it is small, the studio feels very open and new, and it has a large patio.

On Tuesday, We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens for a picnic. We de-boarded the CityRail in Circular Quay and walked around the Opera House into the park. It was very hot, so we relaxed in the shade and watched the colony of bats circling overhead.

The bat colony going nuts before the storm.

Last Sunday we were invited to a BBQ at Shelly Beach in Manly. Aside from the popularity, the beach feels secluded, being tucked away in Manly point. It has the most clear ocean water that I’ve seen outside Hawaii, and people were snorkeling despite the frigid water. We were with a small crowd, BBQing and chilling, although it was cut off short by the predictable “Sunday Storm,” which are frequent enough to be given a name around here.