Mind the Gap

Okay, where were we?

Last I knew, it was Valentine's Day and I was writing a love letter to my girlfriend. The next thing I know, two weeks have passed and I still haven't posted anything on my blog.
It wasn't meant to be like this. I had ideas for posts, and I even have one that I wanted to do today about the Oscars. But I'll do that tomorrow or something. Today, I want to explain where I was, but in order to do so, I will need to reintroduce you to an old word. the Word of the Day is: 'HIATUS'.

Hiatus /huy'aytəs/ n. 1. A break with a part missing; interruption: A hiatus in a text; A hiatus in a discussion. 2. A missing part; gap or lacuna: Scholars attempted to account for the hiatus in the medieval manuscript.

A hiatus is, of course, a gap. And that's what I've given you for a while now, a hiatus. But the explanation of my hiatus is a hiatus of another kind.
See, early this week, we got a phone call. It was from my grandmother's neighbour. She said that an ambulance had come to my Nanna's house. She was experiencing chest pains and was going to be taken to hospital. Now, if you've read my blog before, you will know that my grandmother had a heart attack last year, as such, this was a major concern for my family. If she has another heart attack, the results might be a bit more conclusive if you catch my meaning.
So, my whole family was worried. In response, my Mum packed her bags and I packed mine, and we waited for news. As soon as the hospital said that they were sending Nanna home, we hopped in the car and headed off. My cousin, Kate, was worried too, so she hitched a ride with us, and the three of us set off to New South Wales to take care of Nanna for a week.
As it turns out, Nanna hadn't had a heart attack. In fact, nobody said she did, that was just our worries coming through. No, rather, the chest pain was caused by a hiatus hernia. Essentially, that occurs when there's a gap in your diaphragm, and your stomach pushes out (or herniates) through that gap (or hiatus). It's very painful, and it happens to occur right smack-bang in the middle of your chest, just a few inches away from your heart.

Now, although she wasn't dying, in her old age this hernia was very painful and disruptive, and she was tired when she got home, so my mother, cousin and I made things easy for her, cleaned up the place, made her comfortable and spent some quality time with her. It was a lot of fun.
However, despite now owning a gorgeous little laptop, I had no internet connection and so I couldn't log onto blogger to get in touch with you fine people.
I admit now, I did have the time and materials at my disposal to write something in the evenings and come back here with a blog post for you, and upload it once I could connect to the internet. However, there was another gap that got between you, me and the blogosphere.

I am in a long-term, long-distance relationship with a long-haired (but short-sighted) American girl. That may not seem important to you, but it's very important to me. And, with my hindered internet connection (and not enough funds to afford an international phone bill) I couldn't really talk to her.As a result, I couldn't really concentrate. It may not seem like much, we're already on opposite sides of the world, Geographically speaking, it might have even closed the gap between us slightly, since its hard to measure antipodes, but it felt so much further. In a way, it can seem like a hassle, but it’s kind of nice that there’s someone that can affect me so completely. It meant that I couldn't focus on writing so much, because my mind was trying to devise ways to contact her again - and, I was busy with family.

Oh, and there’s a third thing, it’s very minor, this is the reason why it’s taken me four days to post this even after being in close contact with my girlfriend and checking up on Nanna and being home, safe and sound. A third gap - it’s the gap between Australia and the sun. Because of the axial tilt of the Earth, we’re currently a lot closer to the sun than we are for the other three quarters of the year, and it’s really hot and it makes it hard to write.
It is “punch strangers on the street” hot, if you know what I mean. Too hot to think or talk, and even when I sit inside, the wind is hot, so I can’t cool down with a breeze, and it’s too expensive to run the air conditioner all the time. So, I’ve been writing this in the brief periods of morning, evening & night when it’s cold enough for my brain to work without overheating.

So, yes, this was a bit of a hiatus, but only in the literal sense of the word. Now, I’m back, and I want to get some writing done. I’m the Absurd Word Nerd, and I’m back, I hope you didn't mind the gap.