In my real life, I am a full time teacher of French to elementary school boys. I also moonlight as a part-time PhD student (in Second Language Education) and am halfway through the Food and Media certificate at George Brown College, in Toronto. I originally started my blog as something to do in the year between my MA and PhD because after being chained to my desk for 2 years as I completed my MA, I had so much time on my hands – after all, I love to eat, cook, take pictures and write so what better platform. ELTW has kind of taken on a life of its own since its inception in May 2009 and I couldn’t be happier. Spending a few (all right, a lot of) minutes a day to do something for me and be creative has been the best refuge from the sometimes stressful like of a teacher/ grad student. I was born in Australia and have lived and worked in England, Hong Kong and France, where I spent nearly 6 years not completing my PhD in French literature like I was suppose to be doing! I moved to Canada in 2000 following Mr Neil, aka Master Butcher and Winemaster, back to his humble abode after we met in Morocco in 1999. We live in Toronto and are proud parents to Cleo, a loud Burmese. I am on a mission in 2010 to crack the code for perfect macarons, learn how to bake bread that isn’t rock hard, make my own pasta and master gnocchi.