Stormy Sydney

Another amazing summer storm. Last night I – along with a lot other people across the city – was woken by the biggest storm so far this summer. The thunder was so loud that I felt the house vibrate. It was wonderful to lie awake listening to the storm pass and to feel the cool air after the high humidity of earlier in the night.

I came home from work a little early today as I had a splitting headache and now I’m glad I did because no doubt the train system will have been thrown into complete chaos by the latest storm. Cityrail can’t even run trains on time when the weather is fine – let alone when there are storms. Just a few moments ago the rain was so heavy that there were torrents of water coming down the street and I had to run around the house closing all the doors and windows to stop the water coming in. I love storms – especially from the safety of indoors. Wouldn’t want to be out in this weather.

Update

Unfortunately yesterday afternoon's storms resulted in water dripping down onto the fuse box, so 58 Union St is currently without electricity as the fuse box basically blew up! I could here this crackling sound and wondered what it was, but it didn't dawn on me until I saw the smoke coming from below. Our landlord is on to it, but he couldn't get anyone out last night, so we had to resport to candles, which was very atmospheric. Luckily the hot water system is gas, so I could still have a shower this morning - even if it was quite dark in the bathroom. Having no electricity reminds me of being in India and Nepal.

Talking of Nepal I saw in the newspaper yesterday that the King dismissed the government and has declared a state of emergency. When I was last there in 2001 everyone I spoke to disliked the new King intensely and there were lots of conspiracy theories around that he was involved in the killing of his previous King, his brother. To me it looks like a blatant power grab by the King.