Ordinarily, that would be a beautiful shot of Melbourne - rowers on the Yarra, the skyline, Flinders Street Station. Today, though, a haze has settled over my temporary home city. Yesterday it looked like smog in the distance, sort of like Atlanta; today it's like a never-ending fog. Also it smells and it's bloody hot.
So what's going on? A few hundred (or less) kilometers away in northern Victoria the "bush" is ablaze. It's one of the worst wild fires in Victoria's history. If you click here, you will go to the website of Melbourne's newspaper - under the main heading you can watch a slide show of the fire's projected path. It's crazy to watch online, but kind of eerie to (sort of) experience in person.
Yesterday I took my contacts out around 7:30pm (normally they come out when I go to sleep, around midnight). Today just walking outside I have to continually blink because I feel particles in my eye. Of course, that's all nothing compared to the people who are in serious danger of losing their homes because the government says they can't help everyone and they need to help themselves. Anyone got a spare helicopter and buckets of water to loan these people?
Oh, and yeah, I'm back from Byron Bay to take my exam and not be completely broke. A surfing post is forthcoming, but so far I don't like what I've written. However, I'm doing a take-home exam which means lots of procrastinating to occur in the next 72 hours.
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