BEACH DAY

 

I have been in the city of Sligo since September 2025, and only last week I managed to go and check out the Strandhill beach. It was the perfect combination of me being on leave and in the mood, and the weather being agreeable. I got into the S2 bus and told the driver I was going to Strandhill for the first time, and he pointed out that the beach is on the last stop. It was a 30-minute bus ride. I enjoyed exploring the rest of the city. I was so excited to see the blue sea, the blue sky, and hear the sound of the waves. It was extremely serene. I sat on the nearest bench and enjoyed the scenery. I had packed a sandwich for breakfast, and having a meal with a view was very enjoyable. I took a walk down to the other side of the beach, passed the pebbles, and reached the sand. There was a surfing class in progress. It was quite cold and windy to even think about walking on the sand barefoot. The first thing that came to my mind was how my 3-year-old daughter would enjoy this beach day. 

She is a lovely child, and she has learnt to walk the streets at my pace and catch the public transport; she even has a sense of direction. For example, when we go towards the public library, she gets excited and runs ahead. We try to play inside the house, draw, and do various things, but somehow we end up spending hours in front of the screens. I try to organize outings for the weekends and spend quality time with my daughter. She enjoys playing with her doll, bunny, and other stuffed animals. She has a set of cups and plastic cupcakes where we have pretend tea parties. We enjoy drawing and painting. I can't wait for her to finally figure out how to colour objects individually. She goes crazy for the K-POP demons and sings and dances with them. Her speech has been a bit delayed, but she is slowly getting there. Only now she is making simple sentences such as I want to sleep, I want food, etc. Her favourite foods are toast with butter, chocolate of course, fruits, chicken, meat, fish, and chips. The other day, I made rice and tuna, and she completely omitted eating the rice and finished the tuna. 

She has coped very well with our immigration to Ireland. She finally started preschool in February 2026, after 5 months at home. She was not worried about getting in the transport lady’s car and going to her new school. She enjoys playing with other children. Even though she is a girl, she likes playing with cars and dinosaurs. When we moved to the new house with no bathtub, I was wondering how I could convince her to enjoy the shower. We succeeded with a bucket of foamy water and some toys, and she enjoyed playing in the shower. Potty training has not been consistent, and she still has a nappy on most days. But we have had successful days with the pants staying dry. 

Finally, on a sunny Sunday, we made our way to the beach. It was a pleasant bus ride. She understands the sea now and was even pointing out the baby sharks to mommy! We had lots of snacks while enjoying the view, plus feeding the birds and the seagulls. She would get very excited to see the dogs being walked, and would greet all of them. She did very well walking on the pebbles, and we found a lovely spot to play with the sand. I am looking forward to making more memories with my baby girl. 

LA LA LANAD

 

I have been on leave lately. I have enjoyed watching several movies, reading, creating art, doing crochet, and going for long walks when my little baby is in school. The other night, I opened Netflix, and I saw the movie La La Land come up. I am shocked to see that a decade has passed since it was released. It felt like yesterday. I cried a lot while watching that movie, shockingly more than while watching Hamnet. I know how passionate I felt when I first watched it in 2017. I was obsessed with the story, with the music, and all the dancing scenes. Playing that soundtrack in my car would really take me to La La Land while driving to work. I was passionate about life, about my work, and about the future. 

It was before the COVID pandemic, when life had different ways, and I  think most of us are not fully recovered from the pandemic trauma, and the post-pandemic price hikes and inflation. Before the pandemic, my plane tickets to home were booked 6 months in advance, and it was something to look forward to. I was constantly exploring new restaurants and places to eat out, shop, and meet people. My immigration to Ireland in 2025 is my first international travel since 2019. It does not count as a vacation; it was a painful immigration. I am the most minimal person right now when it comes to shopping. Buying clothes only when necessary, in solid and neutral colours. No more retail therapy, buying a leopard print blazer, and figuring out how to match it later! The last time I ate at a  sit-down restaurant was in February in Dublin when we went to get our resident cards. 

I can feel how different I feel now compared to 10 years ago. I used to feel young and alive, with a world full of opportunities ahead of me. I used to be excited about life and the future. Little things used to inspire me. I feel so numb these days. I do everything as a sense of duty. Get up and go to work to pay the bills, clean the house, look after my baby, and check on my parents. Work has lost its spark! That training registrar's adrenaline rush to learn something new has been replaced with burnout and defensive medicine. My husband and I have been married for 6 years now. Those good old dating days when we used to drool over each other are gone. It is a sad reality for most marriages when we hardly plan to do anything together, or dress up and go on a date for a change. In the new country, we do not have a nanny or a babysitter, so it is quite impossible to have some time with just the two of us. I guess this is what a midlife crisis looks like. After decades of hard work and juggling. 

I was hoping that with immigration to Europe, working in a more systematic and organized health care system, I would be happier and have a more balanced life. I was hoping earning a decent salary in a strong currency would give more opportunities to travel. As I am writing this blog, the world is in the middle of an energy crisis with Iran, Israel, and the US in a state of war. Following social media and the war news has become extremely exhausting. Yesterday I came across a comic cartoon of Donald Trump on Instagram,  dressed as Moses with his stick opening the Strait of Hormuz! It is an uncertain time of history, with more price hikes on fuel, flights, and groceries. No travel plans for me this year, and only saving and survival so we can pay the bills and put food on the table. 

FLOORED

 If you are a woman and you have a pelvic floor, you need to read this book, written by a pelvic physiotherapist. I am a gynaecologist, and I have always undermined pelvic physiotherapy. After having my first child, my mom started babysitting for me. By the time my baby turned 2 years old, my mother’s stress incontinence had worsened from leaking a couple of drops to being wet most of the time. Having a chronic cough wasn't helping as well. I was hunting for a urogynaecologist in town to fix the problem. I felt responsible that lifting my little baby was a possible contributing factor. A colleague recommended a urologist. We had a consultation, he suggested we start with a cystoscopy and urodynamic studies. I found the urodynamic study very invasive, and it didn't add any new information. The urologist suggested a tape, and off my mom went for surgery. We did not send Mom for any pelvic floor physiotherapy. 

You don't have to be in your 50s or sixties to have pelvic floor problems. I had one vaginal delivery, and I know my ability to hold my pee and poo is not the same as my 20s. We underutilize pelvic physio in most aspects of women’s lives. Dr Sara points out how we get all the other organs regularly checked out, and we forget about the pelvic floor until there is a prolapse or a leakage. 

As Dr Sara educates us in her book, nearly one in three women suffer from pelvic floor disorders such as painful sex, prolapse, back pain, constipation, urinary leakage, and lack of orgasms. These conditions affect women’s self-esteem and their ability to exercise or have intimate relationships. Urinary leakage alone is costing women in the USA over 20 billion dollars per year, yet most of these treatments are temporarily successful and do not address the main underlying cause, which is pelvic floor dysfunction. 

There are multiple body stretches that are instructed in the book that help, relax the pelvic floor muscles. She explains the importance of pelvic physiotherapy during pregnancy to reduce pelvic girdle pain, and improve the strength of the pelvic muscles. She explained her own birth experience going smoothly, with an intact perineum. She explained that taking time and effort with the help of her partner to give her regular perineal massages. 

The book is written in a very easy-to-read style, with a friendly tone. It explains the anatomy and physiology of female pelvic organs in simple terms that people who are not medical professionals can understand better. There is a holistic approach into how the pelvic organs and the pelvic floor function, besides doing the Kegels, such as giving us hints as  how to efficiently empty our bowels and bladder without causing tension and ongoing dysfunction. 

Read it You have ever leaked while sneezing, feel "disconnected" from your core, are preparing for birth, or are navigating menopause. It is essentially the "owner’s manual" for the female body that most of us never received in school.