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.

Meet up is tomorrow, Bewitched.

There's a new member in the FB group who might need your spare bed. Zombie took the liberty of mentioning that you had one.

Emails and phone calls were fine. They just required Zombie's attention. One was sorting out the Sky account. ZOH couldn't just transfer it into her name. He had to cancel his account and then Zombie had to set up her own account to coincide with his notice period ending. It's all good. She even gets a brand spanking new HD+ box! Sky engineer will be here next Thursday afternoon to install it.

Bewitched haha no I live in a very big cityand I agree it does sound incongruous-but I can just cook and lose myself IYSWIM and it is really humbling and believe me he interface with RL is overwhelming.My Nationality is the land of Scandi-noir and itchy jumpers and pickled herrings etc!We grew up as Euro-Brats but live in England now! The windmill sounds fantastic

Oooh, England's second city, sans? Zombie will be there a couple of times over the next month to attend the Christmas market.

haha you auld troll-hunter you!

Oh, sorry, hope meet up is fun then.
Not a liberty at all, thanks for mentioning our spare bed.

My experience of Sky engineers is good. They can be a bit scripted and shmoozy, but that makes them ripe for, winding up if you don't like them, and teasing if you do

Troll hunter?? Not Zombie!

You might want to post in the group, Bewitched.

It may well be the same engineer who originally installed the dish and box. If so, he's lovely.

Apart from the fact that you're/they're all trolls up there in the frozen Scandi Lands, I've never had a moment's doubt about you.

You do, however, seem very familiar, in a very nice way, but I can't figure out who you used to be

And I still wish you would come to the meet up.

Thanks Zombie, I have posted in the group.
Always find it a bit tricky, want to say stuff to be reassuring, not hairy fuckwit etc, but never sure how much is too much.

hank youI was so paranoid! I NC about two months ago because I was angry and frustrated hat MNHQ were rather lax on posters casually throwing around MH diagnoses as insults.I will get back into RL because I am gaining more faith in people and other peoples' experiences really interest me

Just popping in to give Zombie a huge ((((((((((HUG))))))))) :)

Bewitched, you hit just the right note with your post.

sans, Zombie understands how you feel. She's been there. But RL can be a great place.

Jacks!! ((((((( HUG ))))))) Zombie will reply to your PM shortly.

Zombie has had a fabulous today. This morning she met MarmaladeBatkins who is delightful. This afternoon she went to a local meet up in Shrewsbury and met several lovely MNers. She and thegreylady got on particularly well and it was actually a bit spooky just how much we have in common.

All in all it was an excellent day.

Thank you Zombie, our new roomie sounds nice.
Your day sounds fantastic, is Bupcakes as much of a hoot as she seems on here? thegreylady is even older than us isn't she? She always sounds lovely.
Mners seem to range from 20ish to 70ish, how great is that!

sans, I hope I didn't prompt the paranoia.
I've noticed people have surprising responses to my mentioning the windmill. Do they have a significance that I've missed?

Hi Jacks or and

Hello-just popped over from the Strictly spoiler thread! So glad zombie had a good meet-up and soleil thanks her for all the encouragement. I suppose that windmills and lighthouses are symbolic places so quite exciting.I was a lot paranoid yesterday,so was glad you posted me out of my spiral of weirdery.My hula-hoop arrived today and it is so big and heavy that I will have to use it in the garden.Great Lucky lucky neighbours and skanky foxes and a shout-out to the police helicopter too. and pringles to y'all

It was totally fantastic, Bewitched.

Buppy is lovely and I suspect even more of a hoot. She and her friend were the organisers of the fair (and it was their first) so we only had snatched moments together. Zombie is delighted to report that the fair was a HUGE success. The comments from both stallholders and attendees in their group are all full of praise. We're travelling down to the meet up together and sharing a bed so Zombie will know her a whole lot better after that!

Yes, thegreylady is 8 years older than Zombie. She and Zombie have had so many similar experiences in their lives that we both found it a bit spooky but also very nice. Zombie definitely made a new friend today.

Is your T working now, sans? Zombie is serious about coming to have a coffee with you. And give you a huge hug. Unless, of course, you're a non touchy person.

NO MY T IS NOT WORKING and the problem has extended to my L will do a proper techie clean-up tomorrow.I know you are serious zombie you know where I live! haha. hugs are kosher! I am not Royalty glad you are meeting lots of lovely people[vicarious pleasure emoticon]

Oh, Zombie has spent a lot time in your city, sans. She knows very well just how lively (and lovely) it is.

Zombie needs to go to the top floor to her old office and find her little keyboard duster thingamajig. But in her case it's bits of baccy and ash...

Zombie has been told that she gives very good hugs. She loves hugs. Hugs have to be one of the best things ever.

zombie I hope you get a nice sleep tonight-you have met loads of people today-I would have a really racing mind-I did some translating for my little sister today so I am thinking in another language and it will be a long night unless I break into a valium.I haven't smoked since the year of recurring whoop whoop cough and I miss a sneaky fagsoleil sends hugs from the city of more-canals-than-Venice

Hugs really are wonderful, aren't they. A bad hug is like bad coffee or bad sex, really, why bother :o

Thanks for the , Bewitched, I'm currently having some in RL (7 pm here).

Zombie, sounds like a lovely day! I've met up with some wonderful MNers here in my part of the world (Western Canada) although I just about died of nervousness before (what if they don't like me????) but everyone's been fab.
I'd love meet so many more MNers I've chatted with, but the closest I can come to most of them is via FB. Poor substitute, but I'll take what I can get :)

Still awake so sending another to Jacksmania I saw a relly good film a couple of weeks ago,set in Canada, Monsieur Lazou?? and

fanks for the

:o

I haven't heard of it... mind you, I don't have a whole lot of time for films these days!

Morning! Well, afternoon actually.

soleil, Zombie slept very well, thank you. Nearly 8 hours with just one visit to the loo at some point.

Exactly, Jacks! But almost nothing beats a good hug.

(((((((((((( GROUP HUG ))))))))))))

?

So looking forward to meeting Buppy, although I suspect from a distance, I imagine she'll be swamped at the meet up!
I really hope they had a lemon drizzle punching stall at the fair

JacksI was really hoping for a minute that you were near the MNer who wants to buy a mansion and turn it into a bandb/mumsnet retreat, but a quick google tells me you're opposite sides, she's in Nova Scotia.

soleil (so much better than sans) how's it going with the hula hoop?
The windmill will be lovely when we've twiddled with it, it's a post mill; they used oxen to turn it to face the wind. Sails are long gone, rather nasty kitchen and bathroom added, and lots of small wooden struts which are distracting from all the old workings which are in place but painted gloss black [horror]. So it's been fucked up and we have to try and unfuck it.

I've been thinking about hugs, the only bad ones I can think of are when someone is heading at you for one and you'd rather dive through the window. Some can be a bit reticent, but that can usually be rectified by some judicious squeezing. I do realise that the last two comments are mutually contradictory

I do get a bit paranoid about hugging non-smokers and try to do closed mouth mwahs

Why? I promise most non-smokers don't bite :o

At least, I don't. And MIL, who is a smoker (but otherwise lovely) seems to have no problem hugging me :o