Coming to grips with Windows 8

Windows 8 has been working on my PC for a couple of weeks now. I made a deliberate decision not to blog about the struggle to change my ingrained work habits to cope with the new interface because it would have resulted in one long primal scream, which would have been entertaining perhaps but futile because most of the time Windows 8 has perfectly logical and reliable methods of doing things. Once you have discovered what they are.
One thing still bugs me, though.
Switching the damn thing off.
With my iPad, powering-down is a simple matter of holding the power button down until the red 'power off' slider appears, sliding it, and you're done.
To get Windows 8 to switch off:
Move cursor to top right and waggle it about a bit until the 'charms' bar appears;
Select the power button;
Select 'power off';
Click 'power off';
Wait until it powers off.
I can't be alone in thinking this a prime bloody nuisance. Are there any alternatives?