I’ll be attending BlogOnToys at Manchester’s Hotel Football next weekend. Here’s your chance to get to know me ahead of the event.

This will be my sixth BlogOn conference in all. I’ve written before about why I love BlogOn so much but suffice to say it’s the people who make the event. I don’t really do brand events because I work full-time, so conferences are often the only time I get to catch up with blogging mates. (Old bloggers never die – they just keep resurfacing at conferences ad infinitum.) But it’s also fun meeting newer faces who bring fresh perspectives and have new ideas and energy.

To help people get to know fellow attendees ahead of BlogOn, there’s always a linky for people to introduce themselves by means of a quick Q&A. So here’s me. If you’ve never spoken to me before, do come and say hi. I’m easy to spot in the crowd and I don’t bite (unless I’m really hungry).

Anyhow, this is me …

1. Share a photograph (a recent one so people can recognise you!)

So for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Tim. I’m usually on the other side of the lens as I much prefer taking photos than appearing in them. But here’s a family selfie with my wife and kids, taken just last weekend in Colmar in the north-east of France.

2. What is the best thing about blogging?

Two things. Firstly, it’s my creative outlet. I don’t blog for money – I do it because I love to write. And secondly, I’ve made some genuine friends from a variety of backgrounds, who I would probably never have gotten to know otherwise.

3. What was your dream job when you were growing up?

Pilot, Thunderbird 1. It kind of still is my dream job, really. FAB.

4. What is your lucky number?

I don’t have one. My favourite number is seven – but I don’t consider it to be any more or less lucky than any other number.

5. What is your favourite season?

Autumn. I love the colours of the season and it means that Christmas is approaching.

6. If you had to choose one what would your favourite dish from the Chinese be?

I’m from a Malaysian Chinese family so this is a bit like asking who your favourite child is! Singapore noodles. No, make that Peking duck. Or any form of dim sum. It’s basically that old joke, isn’t it: I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure.

7. What is your useless talent?

I can recite the alphabet backwards in a little over three seconds.

8. If you could keep any animal as a pet what would you choose?

I’m not really an animal kind of person but if I had to choose one it would be a cat because they’re independent and resourceful. My daughter Kara practically thinks she’s a cat already anyway.

9. Which one meal would you eat forever? (If you had to choose one!)

Give me a trolley of dim sum and I’d be a happy man. And a fat one. (Okay, fatter.)

10. What is the last thing you check before you lock your front door?

Whether I have my phone with me. Which I always do, so I don’t know why I bother checking in the first place.

11. If you won £50,000 what would be the first thing you would buy?

It would be something holiday-related, maybe a family road trip across the US.

12. What is your favourite social media channel?

It varies between Twitter and Instagram, although both channels frustrate me in equal measure. I like the conversational nature of Twitter. And, as a keen but all too infrequent photographer, I love the visual nature of Instagram.

13. Tell us more about your best ever holiday

It’s a toss-up between our pre-kids road trips around New Zealand and the US. Probably the US trip, which took in San Francisco, the Pacific Coast Highway to LA, Joshua Tree National Park, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and others. I’d love to do it again with the kids one day.

14. Name one cake you rock at baking

I love to cook but I haven’t made a cake since I was about ten. When it comes to baking, I’m more Paul Daniels than Paul Hollywood.

15. Which session are you most looking forward to?

I don’t know! I usually don’t research the agenda too closely and tend to make decisions on the spot. Ask me five minutes before the first session – and I still probably won’t be able to tell you for sure.

16. What is your favourite book ever?

The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There was a time in my late teens when I could pretty much quote it word for word.

17. Which special event is your favourite? (Halloween, Christmas etc)

I’ve fallen back in love with Christmas since the kids were born but my favourite event is a personal one. It’s become a tradition that I buy a gift card for Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons every Christmas. My wife and I then take a day off in June/July to go there for lunch. It’s our little annual treat to ourselves.

18. If the internet vanished right now how would you share your message or life story without a blog?

I would still want to write somehow. It could be in Word or using pen and paper. The medium doesn’t really matter. At the risk of sounding pretentious (too late!), it’s not the medium that matters but the story and the process of creating it.

Or maybe I would write something in the form of a parody song, which has become something of a personal signature over the past few years. Apparently there will be no karaoke at the pre-conference party, so you won’t have the (dis)pleasure of hearing me sing my BlogOn parody. Which, on balance, is probably a good thing.

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