I’ve never been the most communicative of people. I’m certainly not one of those people who can comfortably talk about themselves for hours on end. And I’m definitely not a writer.

I find writing excruciating and frustrating. Like extracting teeth, I hear fleshy tendrils squelch and tear as I twist and pull words from recesses in my head. Then I throw them at the page in the hope they’ll stick in a meaningful sequence.

What I’m trying to say is that words pour out of me like treacle from a salt shaker. So why on this earth would I want to start my own blog?!

I think it’s partly because I have this small (unfounded? misguided?) belief that if I torture myself long enough, I might actually shake myself free from this ‘wordly’ horror that’s plagued me for the last 30 years. Logic dictates the more that I write, the easier it will become.

I also think it’s partly because I need to promote myself and give myself some ‘web presence’ (yawn). I make my living from the web, 24/7, but actually have very little online that I can show as my own creation. so it’s time I did something for myself, something to showcase my talents. And it starts here.

If I’m really honest, like so many others out there, the main reason I’m doing this is because I just want to have one of those great blogs that so many bloggers out there already have. I read my favourites almost everyday, each with their regular readers and commentators, making reference to something they’ve learned or discovered on someone else’s blog, and I think ‘God, I’d love to have one of those’. I too want a place to tell the world about my little adventures and personal discoveries, like realising I can no longer drink more than a few pints without suffering for at least three days afterwards. And I want a place where I can talk shop and get feedback from people who actually understand what the hell I’m babbling on about, and somewhere where I can proclaim those really profound thoughts that I only ever seem to have when sitting on the toilet. (Is that just me?)

So here it is, my first blog entry, swaddled in layers of anticipation, tortured extraction and sprinkled with a dusting of pride. If, by some strange twist of fate, you’ve found yourself reading this I hope you’ll be kind enough to drop me a comment or two, just so I know you’ve popped by.)