As you may have noticed I’ve not been doing a huge amount of blogging lately. Being back at work full time and being a few days away from appearing on stage in a musical with a local theatre group means I’ve not got a lot of spare time on my hands and even when I have the motivation to blog isn’t always there. I am missing writing though and hope when things settle down a bit I can get back to publishing a bit more regularly.

All this meant I was very pleased when the lovely Donna from Redhead Babyled nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award and given me some questions to answer – I’ve not done one of these kind of posts for a while and it makes it nice and easy for me to write something without having to find my own inspiration, so thanks Donna!

Holidays: UK or Abroad?

Can I say both? I’ve had some amazing holidays abroad – I was lucky enough to spend every summer in France and Spain when I was growing up and I hope we can give Toby plenty of foreign experiences too. But I love a good break in the UK too- the Lake District is probably our favourite place to visit, although we are branching out and heading to Butlins in Skegness next month! Whether we go abroad or stay in the UK I would definitely say somewhere we can drive to makes life a lot easier with a little one.

Tea or Coffee?

I drink tea every day, but I do enjoy a massive Starbucks latte too.

What’s your all time favourite TV show?

Ooh, this is a tricky one… I love ER – I watched it when it was first on and I think I’ve watched it from beginning to end about three times since. Of shows that are on TV now I would probably say The Great British Bake Off or Stricly Come Dancing, , or maybe The Biggest Loser! Although I have also watched every single episode of Home & Away for the last 11 years! I am something of a telly addict!

If you could fix one thing in the world, what would it be?

Being a teacher I see a lot of kids coming from really difficult backgrounds – if I could fix one thing it would probably be for all children to have a happy and supportive families and to get the same opportunites in life.

If you could have a super power, what would you choose?

The ability to survive on very little sleep! That would be an awesome super power for any parent I reckon!

If you could go back to one time in your life, when would it be?

I honestly wouldn’t go back – I know it sounds cheesy but I really do think the last few years since I met my husband and had Toby have been the best of my life. (Although, if I really had to go back I’d probably go back to primary school – I have such good memories of being at school.)

What would be your perfect Christmas present?

As I get older I find it harder and harder to think of things I’d like for Christmas and birthdays – I think I’d probably go for experiences rather than things (Barry got me a massage for Christmas last year which was amazing, and looked after Toby so I could go and have it!). I think my perfect present would be a weekend away with Barry in a luxury country hotel.

Where did your blog name come from?

Not long after Toby was born I decided I’d like to start a blog and when I was thinking of a name ‘Toby Goes Bananas’ just popped into my head. I didn’t want a name that had ‘mummy’ in it as there are so many of those around already and I just thought Toby Goes Bananas sounded quite fun. (And I do have a plan as to what I’ll do with my blog name if we have another baby!).

Where do you see your blog this time next year?

At the moment I don’t have any massive plans for my blog – I would like to get back to blogging more regularly and all I really hope is that this time next year I am still writing my blog.

Tell us about your closest friend

I know lots of people say it but my husband really is my best friend… But if we’re not including him then it would have to be my friend Claire – we first met in 1999 when we were both working in France but only really became close friends when we both moved to Scotland for work in 2003. We’ve been to every Take That tour together since they reformed, we were bridesmaids for each other and now we have babies who are three months apart (Claire has twin boys) so we spent lots of time together whilst we were both on maternity leave. We never stop talking when we’re together although these days our conversations are more likely to be about teething or car seats than planning our next trip to see Take That!

The rules for this award are…
* Thank the Blogger who nominated you
* Put the Logo on your Blog
* Answer the 10 questions put to you by the Blogger
* Nominate 10 Bloggers
* Give the 10 Bloggers, 10 new questions

So that’s my answers – I nominate the following bloggers (and there are only 8 but so if you fancy joining in then just go for it!):

Aby – You Baby Me Mummy

Becky – The Laughing Owls

Chantelle – Seychelles Mama

Debs – Super Busy Mum

Kate – Family Fever

Gemma – Sunshine on a cloudy day

Lucinda – Teacher2Mummy

Rachel – Parenthood Highs and Lows

And my questions are:

• What one thing (not person) could you not live without?
• If you could live anywhere where would it be?
• Hot or cold?
• What’s your favourite film?
• What’s your earliest memory?
• What’s your favourite thing about blogging?
• What’s the oldest thing you own and how long have you had it?
• Sweet or savoury?
• If you had a day to yourself, no chores to do, no kids to look after, what would you do?
• Any regrets?