Meanwhile, on the other channel...

Farewell from this blog.
The Joy of Raki has now become a teenager, and therefore unruly, unreliable, prone to sulk and liable to stomp off to its own room, slam the door and write bad poetry. It also vigorously believes that You Don't Understand Me And You'll Never Feel Like I Feel, Ever. And, like the father of a teenager, I am torn between allowing it its independence, locking it in its room forever, or just strangling the bugger.
I'll leave that one to your imagination.
However, all is not yet over in the writing stakes - I have two new blogs to follow:
The Nth Columnist, which is all the political and weird stuff, and
Chien Anadolu, which is all the Turkish, er, political and weird stuff.
I hope that you'll find them as entertaining, or barely tolerable, as my output here.
See you on the other side!

Let it go, let it gooo...!

Ugh,  I bloody HATE that song.
It's the overcommercialised, sacharrine fueled kind of crap that really gets my goat. The only current song that comes aywhere near is that 'I've got bills/ I've gotta pay/ So I'm gonna work work work night and day' one, with it's relentlessly upbeat tempo - a paean to being a witless, jolly slave, just as the former is sung by people with formidable bingo wings as they pour their dreams, and their money, into Mickey Mouse's lap.
So why use it as a title?
More because of the Buddhst message that's in it -  and relating to this venerable old blog of mine.
You can't help noticing how little activity it's seen over the past year and a half - I really haven't been givng it my full attention. I have to say, frankly, that it really is time to take this to whatever the Blogosphere equivalent of a vet is and put it out of its misery.
That, or whack it over the head with a spade or a brick and  bury it in the woods.
There comes a time when we have to let go of certain things, and I think I've reached it with this particular thing.
That does not, however, mean that I'm done with blogging. No siree. Instead, I'll be directing whatever blogging energies I have into two distinct areas - one specific to my original plan with this blog, and one more suited to my obvious interests in politics and other shenanigans.
I had originally thought that The Joy of Raki would be all about all things Turkish, but it hasn't quite turned out that way, as you may have noticed. And that, I think, has been to its detriment: I enjoy writing here, but there's no focus per se, and that is, it seems, somewhat anathema to your average blog reader.
So the plan is to retire this blog and come roaring back with two tighter, more focused things.
Whether or not they end up being given scant attention by yours truly remains to be seen.
For those of you who have read this blog, and I am assured that there are some of you out there, thank you for persevering with me this long. If you can bear it, wait for some new, exciting stuff coming from me soon!