Good morning, good afternoon, good evening; delete whichever does not apply. Allow me to introduce myself – I am Chris – “The Real Chrisparkle” – as opposed to any other Chrisparkles you might encounter.

Every year I always allot myself the same New Year’s Resolution – to have more fun. I work on the theory that no one ever died wishing they’d had less fun. And for the past few years I have largely achieved this resolution. But this January I felt like I should strive for something further – and I resolved to be more creative. So I thought I would try my hand at writing a blog.

I have read many other blogs with pleasure over the years and I know I have to work hard to make it a good one. Hopefully you’ll get a bit of sparkle out of it anyway.

A few things about me – and these are what I expect to be the recurrent themes of my blog – I like theatregoing and have done since I was a wee lad. Plays, musicals, Shakespeare are all grist to my mill. Dance productions too – dance done magnificently just about beats anything you can see on a stage. Dance that isn’t can be extremely tedious.

Music was my first love, and it will be my last – but I have this weird thing about Eurovision I’m afraid, so that will also play a prominent role in the blog (to mirror the role it plays in my life). Literature – yes I’m into that, but I don’t read anywhere near enough. Travel – yes, I can tell you all about my holidays, I know you’ll find that riveting. Sport – yes, to an extent; I’ll share my woes when my favourite football team loses and will be enthralled at Olympics and World Cup time. I want to improve my photography skills, so maybe you can help with that – I’ll let you know. Oh and just generally going out and having a good time. There’ll probably be quite a lot of that.

God this looks really dull. If you can stick with me through this introduction, I promise I will stick with you too. Let’s be supportive!!