Reports of Zombie's demise...

[IamtheZombie]

have been greatly exaggerated. She may be a wee bit battered and bruised, but she bends and doesn't break.

Most of you probably know her back story but, for those who don't, here's a very brief recap:

The last 2 1/2 years have been absolutely horrendous: family crises, a breast cancer diagnosis and 20 months of treatment for that, bereavements and sorting out her late MIL's estate. As you can imagine, she found it a struggle at times.

Just under a year ago, DZOH began an "inappropriate" on-line relationship with a woman he "met" playing scrabble on Facebook. At the time he was spending most of his time at his mum's house in Nottingham sorting things out and putting it on the market. The on-line relationship fairly quickly progressed to a full blown physical affair. The woman lives in Wales and he would pay her train fare to come to Nottingham to see him. Zombie was fully aware of everything that was going on and tried to do everything she could to save her marriage. He left Zombie in mid-February, first staying in Nottingham before moving in with her in mid-March. He continued to come back to DDS to take Zombie to her hospital treatments. In mid-May he started making reference to coming back to her. He finally did so in mid-August. Two weeks after he came back they went to Kos for a fortnight. Halfway through the holiday he told her that he was leaving as soon as they returned to the UK. Which he duly did on Friday, 13th September.

Zombie went through all the trauma, drama and devastation between October and August. That is behind her. She's relieved that that it is finally over. A few nights ago she realised that she was sitting here completely relaxed and smiling for no reason. It's as though an enormous weight has been lifted from her.

She's currently packing up his belongings, deciding what she needs to replace, etc. He will come with a man and a van in a few weeks time to remove everything. There are obviously other pracicalities to be sorted out but they are doing so in as amicable a manner as possible.

Can Zombie please ask those of you who are Facebook friends with her NOT to say anything publicly on there about any of this.

Onwards and upwards.

Chicken and rosemary have joined the jacket potato in the Aga, Fid. Zombie may start a bit early on the wine.

Zombie has had intermittent pain in her right hip for at least 25 years. It originally only seemed to be in the joint itself and it didn't really happen that often. She had a bad spell about 10 years ago but the osteopath usually sorted it out for 6 months or so. Recently (over the past couple of years) it has increased in frquency, intensity and now spreads into the thigh muscle and lower back / upper butt muscles. Zombie didn't bother with it while she had all the other health issues going on but now that those are behind her she wants to find out what the problem is and sort it out.

Zombie is meeting her jive teacher for breakfast next week. She's not even sure the classes are still going as the teacher is about 35 weeks pregnant. It is something she'd like to go back to but probably not until the spring.

Zombie is very stalwart and her description of a "few" things accomplished in a day matches the same list for a month for some people!
Momentous events take their toll which is easy to underestimate, so well done for taking it easy when you needed to.
Good news that the hip can be managed with physio, I get that upper butt thing too, it's very annoying.
We should have a jive at the meet up!
Or maybe not
Your supper sounds lovely, we're having takeaway kebab for the first time having lived here for 4 years.
santé!

Agree Bewitched - my Do To List is cobwebbed.

Blimey Zombie - I was only teasing about jiving How cool to have a jive teacher

If Zombie didn't make lists nothing would ever get done, Bewitched. Oddly enough, she's been tinkering with the idea of wearing her jive skirt to the meetup. Saves the anguish of deciding what to wear!

Did you not know that ZOH and she used to go to jive classes, Fid. Zombie had to drop out once she started chemo as she wasn't up to it. But, she's slowly getting her strength and stamina back so watch this space!

Oh God I love lists!
Most of mine refer to previous lists that need updating.
Jive skirt sounds gorgeous, I'm guessing ... red? Do you wear it with bobby sox and plimsolls?

Really no need to anguish over what to wear to meet -up. There's long, short, sparkly, not sparkly, jeans, T shirts, hoodies. But it really feels like nobody is noticing anyway - way more important stuff to concentrate on.
who are they rather than what are they wearing.

And are they still upright after 35 sambucca shots
< I'll let you in on my spreadshit if you want>

Not red, Bewitched, light purple with white dots and a very purple underskirt. Zombie wears it with a white blouse, stockings and red shoes (which are comfortable for dancing but not all evening!!). She'll no doubt find something else to wear.

Zombie really can't tell you how much she is looking forward to the meet up. There are so many people coming that she's wanted to meet for a long time.

Spreadshit sounds interesting. Do tell her more.

spreadshit was a typo for spreadsheet ages ago.

Was getting a bit carried away after too much .

I couldn't really divulge who keels over/falls off a BorisBike/crawls around in the gutter/throws up on the train home, having consumed said sambucca!

Could I?

Probably best not to, Bewitched unless you want to PM me.

So Zombie went for her smear test yesterday. Three speculums, two positions and five attempts later the nurse conceded defeat. Zombie's cervix was no where to be found. She goes back tomorrow to see if the other nurse has better luck.

The good news is that the ZombieCar passed its MOT with flying colours today. Zombie met up with a friend for breakfast and a catch up which was really lovely. She's 31 weeks PG and still teaching jive! She and Zombie have promised to meet for coffee at least every fortnight.

good luck zombie

Thanks, killpeppa. Zombie is going to make her own luck from now on. Well, except for winning the lottery of course. That would be down to LUCK.

hahahaha, I think I'll save it for the meet-up, a little guessing game for a quiet moment (fat chance of any of those)

Yikes, hope she finds your cervix tomorrow. I wonder if she could try with you standing up?

I saw somewhere that Zombie's cervix has been more co-operative and has succumbed (sp?) to being speculumed (ditto).

So, Zombie and ZombieCar are tuned and ready to go.

We've got a full tank of gas.

Half a pack of cigarettes.

It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses ( well, me Raybans are on the sideboard)

Hit.

It.

'Tis true, Bewitched. It was tucked well back and way over to one side but she found it. The only question is whether she was able to get a decent sample. Results should be back in 2 weeks.

Have you got a webcam on Zombie and the ZombieCar?? Zombie's eyes are extremely sensitive to light so she does wear sunglasses year round. You're also right about the cigarettes...

Zombie is waiting for the physiotherapist to ring this morning. She has then set herself the goal of getting the kitchen and all the bathrooms completely sorted out. She may be some time.

Haha, no it's a quote from The Blues Brothers.

I didn't have you down as a fellow puffer. I wear sunglasses with no sun sometimes, they're good for hiding behind. I used to like Raybans because they covered up the eye bags - now they just sit on them

Ooh, something to six - time!

The Blues Brothers are spying on Zombie????

They must have heard about Zombie's jiving!

Well, it is world famous.

'Tis very blustery here. Zombie is glad she has the ZombieCats to protect her. ZombieCatT has spent most of the day in her lap.

I miss my cats. And dogs.

Very blowy here today too and the most amazing downpour at lunchtime, we were cozy in the pub with DS and his bestest.

We spent a couple of hours out in the countryside this morning near where we used to live; very muddy, but lovely.

Zombie couldn't survive without the ZombieCats.

Zombie has been EXTREMELY productive today. She did 3 loads of washing, emptied, sorted and re-stocked the airing cupboard, sorted a large quantity of clothes into too big, too small and just right and cleaned the lounge and rearranged almost all of the furniture in there.

She. Is. Knackered.

The furniture rearranging sounds fun, the rest, not so much, but satisfying.
My latest excuse for not doing house work is knitting a bloody cardigan requested by the old man 2 years ago. Thin needles, thin wool, arrgghh!
Should have said no way, but have embarked so will finish.
Trouble is, he seems to be growing faster than it is

Laundry and knitting

We'll show'em at the meet-up won't we

Zombie found it all extremely satisfying, Bewitched. Her niece and a couple of friends have offered to help her but she just feels that getting the house back is something she needs to do on her own. It will take longer but there's no rush.

Zombie had a few attempts at knitting in her youth. They weren't terribly successful. Having said that she's been thinking recently that she'd like to try again if only she knew where to start.

Yesterday was Zombie's shopping day out. She didn't buy anything very exciting (except to her!) but all things she needed / wanted.

Today will involve a quick trip to the recycling centre and buying a step ladder.

Do you think anyone else will speak to us at the meet-up if they've read this?

I didn't knit for years and was inspired to start again by Woolly Hugs.
They tell you which wool and needles to use and give you a colour range, and they only want 6inch squares so you get the practice and finish one quite quickly even if you've lost a bit of speed. They have various projects on the go so you can make a whole baby blanket if you want to.
They're really helpful but there's tutorials on YouTube as well.

Maybe we should go to the meet-up incognito?

Or namechange, you be AnyFucker and I'll be Mitmoo!

Once Zombie has the house at least 80% of the way she wants it (which will take a few months) she may well reward herself by having a go. She needs some new hobbies.

Recycling done and step ladder acquired. Zombie can now reach the light bulbs that need changing (210 yo house with high ceilings on the ground floor!).

Zombie has a load of name badges. She can make up as many as we want!

Just been reading the "scared of winter" thread, terrible lengths people have to go to to stretch their budget, especially with small children.

Our house is high ceilinged too, and early Victorian, very pretty but very unsound environmentally. Luckily DH gets unlimited wood from work to feed the woodburner.

I hope Zombie is warm and cosy and well insulated, very hard in old house.

Sounds like we have endless badge mischief possibilities!