Goodbye for now...

The moment has finally arrived, my last day at the GP surgery, my last free afternoon, my last free time to actually type something. After almost 5 months of blogging, I'm signing off with the 70th blog. From tomorrow I'll be starting work at A&E which means crazy shifts and long hours. I already received my rota yesterday and discovered that I've got night shifts starting from Friday - talk about the deep end.

However, this does not mean the end of the blog - it's more like a sabbatical. Working in A&E means my time is very limited. I had hoped that the Guest Bloggers would take over and keep the blog alive and I am still hopeful that may still be the case, however the interest in the blog has seemed to wane since the New Year so my optimism has diminished as well! If you would like to post a blog, please let me know in the comments section.

Looking back, keeping the blog has been a lot of fun. Typing something on a daily basis was quite a challenge and one I feel I met with varying degrees of success. I think the blogs have ranged to very interesting to very boring with the majority stuck in between. The topic range has been quite diverse which was always the aim of the blog - "random thoughts on any given day." Over time I've attempted to change that and focus on a few main topics, relevant to the current climate and people reading the blog.

The peak of this blog was arguably during November/December, when many people were reading and leaving comments. It was also the time when I started publishing the Guest Blogs. Although quite a few people have contributed, the majority have struggled to come up with follow-up blogs, mainly due to sheer laziness - you know who you are! However, I'm extremely grateful that they all made effort in the first place and hopefully they can contribute in the future. See how I am trying to come up with different ways to get people to blog!

11 comments remains the record for any blog and it's funny that the blog was about Bollywood! Forget all the religious, political and current affairs blogs; it was the one about Bollywood which received the most comments! If it wasn't so funny, it would be depressing. I've nagged Frank-ness to post another blog and see the response but so far no luck, maybe she's scared of living up to past success!

My favourite blog was easily the blog about the 12th Imam back in December. I spent almost two weeks researching material for that blog and found out a lot of new information on the subject. My blog only began to scratch the surface on the 12th Imam but I learnt a lot from it, the only disappointing part was that I didn't go on to type more about it and also to discuss the other Imams.

As the current climate seems to deteriorate on a daily basis, Muslims are coming under more and more scrutiny. Every day there seems to be a negative portrayal of some Muslim community/family/person. Although some of it justified such as the on-going trial on the attempted July 21st bombings, other stories, I believe, exist to create more and more tension against Muslims in the UK and the West as a whole. How the situation will continue to develop is in our hands, we need to stand up and be noticed. Only the Muslims can change the perception of themselves, it's no good relying on others and for that, every action is helpful regardless of how big or small.

Lastly before I sign off, I thought I'd summarise my blogs under relevant heading (in chronological order), easy reading if there are any new readers out there or for anyone who just wants to waste some time reading my random thoughts:


RELIGION

1. Have you seen the moon lately?
2. Feeling hungry? Allow me to explain why.
3. Family politics
4. Refresh yourself
5. Instilling the faith
6. Night of Power
7. Shias and Sunnis
8. An evening with a scholar
9. Refresh yourself II
10. Religion and culture
11. Guest Blogger #3 - When people meet Shias: A personal account
12. An Islamic Christian
13. The 12th Imam
14. WM vs. DV: Christianity and Jesus Part 1 and Part 2
15. Islamic New Year
16. Message of Karbala
17. Ashura
18. Guest Blogger #6 - Unity between Christians and Muslims

CURRENT AFFAIRS AND POLITICS

1. Petrol prices
2. Spying on your children
3. Bow to the USA
4. It's Getting Hot in Here
5. Convenient interference
6. You've got them, so I want them too
7. Permanent woe continues
8. Morning with a muslim family
9. News coverage: a comparison
10. Guest Blogger #4 - United We (should) Stand
11. Guest Blogger #5 - Holy (united) Spirit
12. Where is all the money going?
13. Guest Blogger #4 - Getting away with murder

MEDICAL

1. Half-day Friday
2. Charging in the NHS
3. Tiredness is killing
4. Complacency in General Practice
5. Over medicalisation
6. Why am I a doctor?
7. Tiredness is killing II
8. The jobs not all bad
9. Plan B
10. Business patients
11. How to sleep less AND have more energy

MISCELLANEOUS

1. The Blog Effect?
2. Tiredness is killing
3. Fightback needs to start
4. More motivation please
5. The Blog Effect? II
6. Inadvertant movie mode
7. Fresh ideas please
8. Driving me insane
9. Culture clash
10. Guest Blogger #1 - Bolly-wood you get over it!
11. Guest Blogger #2 - Jughead's Double Digest
12. This blog needs you
13. Guest Blogger #6 - Grateful for gratitude
14. It's Bauer time I and II
15. World's gone crazy
16. Random chatter

So there you have, a concise list of nearly all my blogs. You'll have to go hunting in the archives for the ones I've deliberately left out!

Take care all,
As always, thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?