an apocalyptic scene with a dark sky and burning people running in the streets and the occasional explosion of a molatov coctail, but all I see is normality.

A map on the BBC news site shows the ash cloud completely covering the UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/dhtml_slides/10/iceland_volcano/img/5iceland_volcano466.jpg

....does that mean the clouds I can see outside are ash clouds? They're pretty thick clouds, but also pretty white with only small grey whispy bits.