What's in My Bag: 8 Days in Vancouver and Saskatoon

My little brother is getting married this weekend. Technically, he is already married, but this time they are having a big ceremony and I will be attending in person rather than via Skype. I'm flying to Vancouver with my parents and we will spend a few days there before heading to Saskatoon — the Paris of the Prairies — for the wedding. It's been almost seven years since my last trip to Canada and I'm really looking forward to it. Here's what I've packed.

The weather is going to be pretty warm — up to 31 degrees C on Saturday for the wedding, it seems — but cooler in the evenings, so I've tried to bring a variety of clothing options: four dresses, three shorts/jeans, a blazer, two cardigans, four casual tops, one smart top, my gym kit, bikini, underwear, two scarves and four pairs of shoes.

I tend to wear dresses most of the time on holiday, so I'm bringing my striped monochrome Madewell dress, my blue and pink French connection dress, my purple TopShop fit-and-flare dress, and a patterned coral dress from F&F at Tesco. Oh, and my bridesmaid's dress, of course! I've packed a pair of cornflower blue J. Crew short shorts, some jean capris from White Stuff and my American Eagle super-stretch jeggings, which I'll wear on the plane, along with my H&M black jersey blazer. I'm also bringing my favourite two Mango cardigans in royal blue and pink. I have four casual tees and tanks (mainly in blue or pink shades) and my new pink pussy-bow sleeveless blouse from H&M.

As I'll definitely be doing some jogging, I packed my running kit (mainly from Lululemon), and a pink and green patterned bikini from & Other Stories in case I get some beach and/or pool time. For a warm-weather vacation, I usually bring three pairs of shoes: ballet flats, trainers and flipflops. This time, as well as this trio (black flats from Banana Republic, purple Asics trainers and purple Havaianas), I am bringing a pair of patent black heels from M&S. I don't normally wear heels, especially not on holiday, but wedding needs must!

Elsewhere in the case, I managed to fit my toiletries into my aspirational 'eat cake for breakfast' pouch from Kate Spade and my make-up in a polka-dot bag from TopShop. The side pocket of my suitcase is filled with jewellery, tech kit (cables, chargers and adapters) and useful bits and bobs.

As usual, I'll carry my medium slate-grey Lonchamp Le Pliage onto the plane, which contains my e-book-filled iPad mini, passport, wallet, phone, headphones, Private Eye, my new teal Moleskine and all of my Canada travel research notes, gum, an eye mask and an inflatable neck pillow. Flying with BA means that I can also bring my Madewell cross-body, which holds my DSLR and zoom lens, as a personal item.

Although it's a long-ish flight to Vancouver, we arrive tomorrow afternoon. Plenty of time to enjoy some of the numerous Canada Day festivities. Maybe I'll even meet Pacey!

"You Are Above Reducing Yourself for the Sake of Rank"

My cinema attendance has been pretty woeful so far this year, but I did find time to see Amma Asante's new movie Belle this evening at my local, the Shortwave in Bermondsey. I saw the US trailer for the movie before a screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel in New York and couldn't tell whether Belle would be the thoughtful and thought-provoking tale of a fascinating but little known historical figure, or a cheesy, bodice-buster. Happily, it turned out to be more of the former, with a healthy dose of legal drama.

The film is inspired by a 1779 painting of two young women: Lady Elizabeth Murray and her mixed-race cousin, Dido Elizabeth Belle. Their equal position in the portrait prompted interest in the hitherto little known story of Dido — the illegitimate daughter of Captain John Lindsay and Maria Belle, an enslaved woman in the West Indies — who was raised with her cousin by their great-uncle, the Earl of Mansfield. As the film opens, Captain Lindsay (Matthew Goode) takes the young Dido to the Hampstead residence of his uncle, Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson), and his wife (Emily Watson), asking them to raise his mixed-raise daughter alongside her cousin Elizabeth — their other great niece. Somewhat reluctantly, the Mansfields eventually agree — and Lindsay heads off to sea again.

Years later, and Dido (now played by the brilliant Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) are looking forward to making their début in London society. Although they are conscious of the differences between them, neither really understands why Dido isn't allowed to eat dinner with her family or with the servants. In addition, Dido finds herself in a stronger position than her cousin, in some ways, after she finds out that her father has perished at sea, leaving her a small inheritance.

In theory, Elizabeth should receive a sizeable inheritance from her father, but the said father is too busy living it up with his second wife abroad and has abandoned his eldest daughter. This means that when the cousins meet the brothers Grimm Ashford — older, nastier James (played by Draco Malfoy) and younger, slightly more ambiguous Oliver (James Norton) — it is unclear which woman stands a stronger chance of making a match. Certainly, Mother Ashford (Miranda Richardson) couldn't imagine anything worse than having Dido as her daughter-in-law until she finds out about her income, while Elizabeth plummets rapidly in Lady Ashford's expectations when the latter learns of the former's fortunes — or lack thereof.

Meanwhile, a friendship develops between Dido and John Davinier (Sam Reid), a promising would-be lawyer who is doing his best to sway Mansfield's opinion on the Zong massacre case Mansfield is working on, the outcome of which could have implications for the whole British slave-trade industry. Mansfield is less impressed with Davinier's 'overly idealistic' world-view, and he certainly doesn't see Davinier — the son of a vicar — as a suitable suitor for his great-niece. 142 slaves were thrown overboard to drown by sailors of the Zong who claimed there wasn't enough water to go round. In fact, the slaves' poor living conditions had led to the spread of disease, which would have meant they were worth more to the slave-trade company in insurance money than alive. Unsurprisingly, the insurers cried fraud. This is probably the only film where viewers want an insurance company to win the case!

Although Belle does veer into Austen territory at times, especially in some of the overly sentimental scenes between Dido and Davinier, it's a very compelling film, anchored by the strong central performance from Mbatha-Raw. The scene in which Dido sits in front of a mirror, cursing her complexion and clawing at her face is particularly hard to watch. The other actors in leading roles were perfectly fine, but didn't stand out. Elizabeth, who we are told several times is a feisty lass, was particularly wet, but I'm not sure that is necessarily Gadon's fault, and the scenes with the two cousins alone together were very strong.

One silly thing that did distract me was that the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford was playing the part of the High Court in London. As such, Dido is seen to hop in a carriage in Bedford Square and arrive some 50 miles down the road practically before her great-uncle has finished his opening remarks in the Zong case. Oxford is, of course, very attractive and filled with 18th century architecture, so it's perfectly understandable that they wanted to film there. This quibble aside, Belle tells a fascinating story set in a period that was far from England's finest hour.

The Caffeine Chronicles: BREW Oxford

Oxford isn't exactly a shining light of great independent coffee shops, which is a shame given that it was leading the way back in the 17th century (The Grand Café on the High Street is supposedly located on the site of country's first coffee shop). My dad introduced me to The Missing Bean on Turl Street a few years ago but although they do a pretty decent espresso, they don't serve the geekier coffee forms that I now crave.

However, times are a-changin' and at the weekend, I visited BREW on North Parade, a pleasant stroll from the city centre via the leafy Banbury Road. There are two 'parades' in this part of North Oxford, which is known as Summertown: confusingly, North Parade is south of South Parade. Allegedly, this is because during the Civil War, South Parade marked the southern extent of the Roundhead camp, and North Parade signalled the northern boundary of the Royalist army. Either way, the two streets, which both run between the Banbury and Woodstock Roads, are filled with nice restaurants and pubs and are well worth a visit.

There are only a handful of tables inside, which is fine on a hot day like Saturday when everyone wants to be outside, but I can imagine that it gets much busier when the weather isn't quite so clement. When you walk inside, the first thing you notice is the amazing vintage copper coffee machine, which stands proudly on the counter. What a beauty!

The espresso-based drinks are certainly cheaper than in similar places in London, but I wanted a nice pourover brew and it was such a novelty to see hand-drip options on the menu in an Oxford coffee bar. The coffee comes from local, Witney-based Ue Coffee, and I selected a Rwandan variety (£3) and took a seat in the window. Had it not been so scorchio, I might also have ordered a slice of cake, but I was much happier with a glass of ice-water.

While I waited for my coffee, I admired the shelves that hold a range of coffee-related products for sale: Aeropresses, V60s, coffee beans...oh, and a tea towel screen-printed with a meat-knife design! Music came via the hipper-than-thou record-player-in-a-suitcase that sits in pride of place next to the coffee grinder. Very cool.

The coffee itself was very good: it had just enough fruity acidity to cut through the summer haze. Tea-drinkers always find it surprising when I say that coffee can be refreshing but this variety really was.

BREW has a sister coffee bar called The Keen Bean on the Cowley Road (Oxford's alternative/or hipster enclave east of the city centre), and a third outpost will open soon, although its location is still top secret. Oh, and for legal reasons, BREW is technically spelled with an umlaut: BRËW just adds a hint of Scandi coolness, don't you think?

BREW. The Middle Shop, North Parade, Oxford OX2 6LX. Facebook.

An Oxford Elegy

It's been a while since I've been back to visit my parents in Oxfordshire and this weekend there were several other reasons to head west. First, it was my dad's MA graduation ceremony and the plan was for me to join my parents for a celebratory dinner at Le Manoir in Great Milton. Although Raymond Blanc's lovely restaurant is only a few miles from my parents' house, I've never been, but the unpredictability of traffic on the A40 on a Friday night meant that I wasn't counting on anything other than pudding. As it turned out, a horrible fire in White City meant the road was closed entirely for hours and my bus had to inch its way up Kilburn High Road instead, and until we entered the Oxfordshire county line, I wasn't sure I would be able to make it at all.

Luckily, though, I got to Great Milton just as my parents had finished the second course of their multiple-course tasting menu. I ordered the assiette de porc from the à la carte menu, sipped on the most elegant whiskey sour I've ever had, and nibbled on a bread roll that was spiked with crispy bacon pieces.

My main course was delicious: a real assortment of pork, including tiny pork chops (sorry, Babe), slices of sausage, crackling, and pancetta-laced salad. It was so beautifully presented too and the service throughout the evening was impeccable.

Then it was pudding time. As my parents were on the set menu, they had to have the set pudding, which was called something like ‘a theme on the French strawberry', but I got to pick the millionaire's shortbread, which was amazing: rich dark chocolate, layered with gooey caramel and crisp shortbread, garnished with gold leaf.

I also found room for a second cocktail, which was essentially a gin mojito, and which was refreshing and fruity. We retired to the sitting room for coffee, and were pleased to find an incredibly tempting selection of petits fours. Le Manoir isn't cheap, but the food is outstanding and it is a truly lovely place for a special celebration.

On Saturday, I went into Oxford for a haircut and colour (the second reason for my visit), and did a bit of shopping. I usually go to The Missing Bean for coffee and stopped by for a macchiato first thing, but I also discovered a new coffee bar in North Oxford called Brew (full review to follow), which serves pourover coffee: the first place I've found to do so in Oxford. After an afternoon in the sun with the cats at home and dinner on the terrace, Dad and I went to support Mum at her choir's latest concert (the third reason for my visit), which took place in a church in Headington — near the famous Headington shark.

This morning, the sun was still out so my dad and I went for a run around Christchurch meadow. The cobblestone of Merton Street was completely covered with confetti — students' post-exam celebrations — and it looked like they were in the process of clearing up at a ball at Merton College. The gate to the Radcliffe Camera was, for once, open so we took our coffee and posed for a few photos under the honeyed stone arches. Oxford is so beautiful on days like this.

After a lunchtime barbecue, we went to see a few friends and relatives before it was time for me to head back to the Big Smoke. I can't imagine living anywhere in the UK other than London, but I sure do enjoy the weekends I spend at my parents' house, especially when the weather is so perfect.

A Sunny Week in June

Some of my colleagues from our US office have been visiting recently, so I've been too busy to blog very often, but not too busy for my usual combination of brunch, gin and random London sights!

1: The elephant skeleton at the Royal Veterinary College. Check out their events page for details of their Night at the Vet College events later in the year.

2–3: Friday evening started out with a classy rosemary gin fizz at the Rotunda bar in King's Cross and ended at Rowans, a seedy bowling alley in Finsbury Park that doesn't seem to have changed since about 1976. A fun night!

4: As St John Bakery on Maltby Street hadn't quite got their first batch of bacon sandwiches ready, I grabbed a huge grilled cheese sandwich from The Cheese Truck instead. "Do you want bacon with that?" they asked. Well, it would be silly not to.

5: As part of the London Festival of Architecture, GUN Architects have created a conceptual rainforest in Bloomsbury's Bedford Square. It would be even better if you could walk inside — or if they had some cute monkeys — but it's still pretty impressive.

6: I finally got to have brunch at Caravan on Sunday and it was epic. After a delicious Chemex brew to wake me up, I worked my way through a tasty juice, and then made short work of my main course: cornbread French toast with bacon, avo and rocket. It's hard to go wrong with Caravan's brunch menu.

7: St Paul's looking colourful on my walk home.

8: I'm still not sure if I'm keeping these yet, but I bought a pair of cute, comfy, rainbow-coloured flipflops. But they're Crocs (the Huarache Flip Flop in multi/island green). The only reason I am hesitating is that the straps make them a little fiddly to put on. Oh, and I did go into Schuh looking for a pair of neutral sandals, but these colours match pretty much everything in my wardrobe.

9: When a gin-loving New Yorker is in town, you have to take her to the best gin joint you know. Luckily for me, 214 on Bermondsey Street is also only a few minutes' walk from my flat. We worked our way through a fair chunk of the cocktail menu, including this gin flight, which included three gins mixed with 214's homemade tonic. We chose the 'nice and spicy' selection and managed to identify all three correctly. That's what they call winning at gin.

Saturday Night at Brixton Market

After watching Greece — my World Cup team in our office sweepstakes — under-perform on Saturday afternoon, I was in need of some serious commiseration. I was with some friends near Brixton and everyone was surprised to hear that I had never been to Brixton Market, so off we went. Don't get me wrong: I've been meaning to go for years, and had Honest Burgers not opened up in central London, I probably would have gone sooner, but Brixton is a pain to get to from Bermondsey and I had never quite got round to it.

We were expecting the market to be rammed on a warm Saturday evening, but everyone must have still been in the pub as it was just pleasantly bustling. Inside the market, there are numerous restaurants, with cuisines from more countries than are represented by those in the World Cup group stages. There were many tempting options, but my eye was caught by a Japanese restaurant called Okan, which specialises in okonomiyaki — the tasty grill-it-yourself savoury pancakes from the Osaka and Hiroshima regions of Japan, which I enjoyed recently while in Hiroshima.

We started with a bottle of sake, served in a beautiful ceramic bottle with matching cups. We shared a starter platter, which included some edamame, kimchi, fried aubergine and tofu salad. The edamame were so moreish, we ordered another portion.

Okonomiyaki means "grilled as you like" and there are a huge variety of toppings for the pancake batter base, from tofu to fish and meat. I went for the prawn version, and they throw some cabbage, egg, brown sauce and seaweed flakes on top. Although at £7.25, it was slightly more expensive than the okonomiyaki I had in Hiroshima, it tasted just as good. We didn't get to sit at the grill and make our own, but it was a hot evening, so it was probably more pleasant to sit and people-watch in the market instead. The sake was £10 for the bottle, and was a refreshing and reasonably priced complement to the meal. I even managed to practice a little bit of Japanese, which is always nice.

We had a couple of hours before football part two, so we went to a casual but cool and intimate cocktail and tapas bar called Seven at Brixton. The decor inside is great: colour-coded bookshelves, suitcases as shelves for spirits and funky lighting. It was quite dark inside and as I only had my iPhone with me, my photos aren't great.

The best thing about Seven is that most cocktails are only £5. Yes, five pounds (or 5 lb, as it says on the menu). They are all creative, expertly mixed and well-presented too, so it's quite the bargain. I was going to have a ginger beer and basil mojito but when they offered to make me a raspberry-mint one instead, how could I say no? I was slightly jealous of my friend's Hemingway & Sons Daiquiri, which was served in an upcycled medicine bottle. The Bitter End — short, sharp and sweet — was also great.

As usual, I tried to go for something different for my second cocktail, and in the end, I decided on the Buffalo Passion, which involves Buffalo Trace bourbon, Licor 43 (a citrusy Spanish liqueur), lemon and passionfruit juice. I wasn't quite sure that bourbon and passionfruit would work together, but the fruity tartness of the latter complemented the smoky smoothness of the former very well. After a series of miscommunications stemming from the similarity of English people's pronunciation of churros and jerez, we eventually ended up with some delicious churros for pudding. What a great place!

Then it was time to find a pub with a big TV screen for more football-related disappointment. I left, though, vowing to come back to Brixton Market again soon to try out some of the other food and drink offerings. If only TFL would improve the transport links between south London's two best foodie destinations beginning with B!

Okan. Unit 39, Brixton Village Market, Brixton, London, SW9 8PS (Tube: Brixton). Website. Twitter.

Seven at Brixton. Unit 7, Market Row, Brixton, London, SW9 8LB (Tube: Brixton). Website. Twitter.

Brunch It Like Peckham

Regular readers will be well aware of the fact that brunch is by far my favourite meal of the day and Peckham, it turns out, is a surprisingly good place for good brunch spots. There's No. 67 on Peckham Road, for example, and then there's Anderson & Co on a particularly lovely stretch of Bellenden, which has a whole host of independent shops and restaurants. I have been meaning to go to Anderson & Co for yonks, and on Sunday, I rounded up the south London posse and finally got to go.

We arrived around noon — just in time to grab one of the tables in the gorgeous glass-ceilinged garden at the back. There are a couple of tables of the pavement too and a few seats inside, but on such a hot, sunny day, we wanted to be outside. The garden is all done up in shades of slate grey, with potted flowers in sconces on the walls. Two of our party were running a little late, which gave me plenty of time to peruse the epic brunch menu. Too much time, perhaps, because it was really hard to choose.

In the meantime, we ordered some coffees and I was pleased to find that my macchiato was served at a drinkable temperature. In fact, they explain this near the La Marzocco machine inside, and ask you to let them know if you want it hotter (please don't!). They use Square Mile coffee and I was very impressed with my macchiato. Saturday night at the Bermondsey Arts Club wasn't particularly heavy, but I was grateful for the extra caffeine kick.

Even at brunch, I wouldn't normally order two dishes, but I couldn't narrow my choices down any further. I started with the granola with Turkish yoghurt, and roasted pineapple with lime and poivre des indes (£4.50). It was the pineapple that sold me on this — I love pineapple and lime — and it was really delicious. So much more interesting and flavoursome than the usual granola parfaits you see. I probably would only have eaten half, but my 'main course' took a little while to arrive, so I grazed a little longer.

Next up was the scrambled eggs on sourdough toast with avocado (£6), which, again, were amazing. The eggs were creamy, smooth and the perfect consistency. When I saw how crispy the streaky bacon some of my friends ordered was, I almost wished I'd chosen that as my side instead of the avocado, but my avo was fresh and ripe and came in a very generous portion. In fact, all of the dishes were generously proportioned and very reasonably priced.

Other great-looking dishes chosen by my friends included the avo on toast with chorizo, fried egg and pumpkin seeds (£7), and the icy gazpacho with avocado ice cream, tomato and cucumber (£4.50). My second-choice main was a meatball, rocket and pecorino open sandwich, which sounded great.

The boys made room for an ice cream from Melange, the chocolate shop across the road, but the rest of us settled for a brisk walk — well, gentle stroll — to the nearest park to recline in the sunshine.

I'm already plotting a return to Anderson & Co to try some of the other brunch dishes and the burgers they've recently started serving on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Peckhamburgers, of course.

Anderson & Co. 139 Bellenden Road, London, SE15 4DH (Tube: Peckham Rye Overground). Website. Twitter.

The Bermondsey Arts Club: a New Art Deco Speakeasy for Bermondsey

After an afternoon of lazing by a sunny Sussex swimming pool for most of Saturday, when my friends and I arrived back at London Bridge on Saturday night, we were in need of something a little more refined. Luckily, the Bermondsey Arts Club has just opened on the site of a lovingly restored (and, one hopes, cleaned!) public toilet on the corner of Tower Bridge Road and Grange Road. Even better, the art deco cocktail joint is roughly equidistant between London Bridge and my house.

When we arrived, around 10 pm, the Bermondsey Arts Club wasn't especially full (I think there had been a private event earlier on), but there were enough other people there to give it a nice buzz. By the time we left, there were no free tables and the perching stools near the bar were also getting full. Technically, it's still in soft launch at the moment, but I'm hoping the word doesn't get out too quickly, as I rather like having a secret speakeasy at the end of my street, because I can't be in Manhattan all the time.

The décor is gorgeous: all monochrome chequered tiles, hexagonal stools and tables, and a lovely illuminated glass ceiling. The white tiled walls are original although I'm sure they've been thoroughly disinfected! It was pretty dark and I didn't have my DSLR with me, so please excuse the photo quality in this post.

The cocktail list and the day's specials were very tempting, but I'm a sucker for a) fruity gin-based cocktails and b) locally themed drinks, so I ordered the Bermondsey Gardens, which involves St Germain, Beefeater gin, lime, apple, cucumber and mint. It was delicious and extremely refreshing after a long day in the sunshine. I was slightly envious of my friends' Eau de Vie, which contained watermelon, citrus vodka and lychee. Also, they were pink.

For my second drink, I decided to go for something completely different: a Succubus, which was made with Maker's Mark, Peychaud's bitters, kumquat marmalade and blood orange. The combination of the bourbon and the interesting citrus flavours worked really well together. I'm trying to move out of my comfort zone cocktail-wise (i.e. not just ordering the gin with lime and/or raspberry drink every time) and I really enjoyed the Succubus.

Most of the cocktails are £9 or £10 and all of the ones we tried were very well mixed. There is also a great atmosphere in the bar, with cool but unobtrusive background music that doesn't rule out conversation. They are hosting live jazz on Wednesday evenings, with other entertainments to come. And did I mention how much I like the typography?

All in all, the Bermondsey Arts Club is a great addition to the neighbourhood and it's especially nice to see a bar like this opening up on the right side (my side, that is) of Bermondsey Street.

The Bermondsey Arts Club. 102A Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 4TP (Tube: Borough or Bermondsey). Website. Twitter.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Fowlds Cafe (CLOSED)

UPDATE: Fowlds Cafe has now closed permanently. 

There is a notorious vacuum of good coffee in south-east London but some good friends of mine have just moved to Camberwell and recommended a cafe called Fowlds, near Burgess Park. As I had to walk through the park to get to my friends' housewarming party on Saturday, I decided to stop off for a caffeine break on the way.

Fowlds is based in a 144-year-old upholsterers on a quiet square near the west side of Burgess Park. It's the first cafe/upholsterers that I've visited, although I did recently check out a cafe/leather maintenance store in Kyoto! There are a few tables outside, all of which were full on such a sunny day, as well as a few seats inside. The furniture and décor inside are as stylish as you would expect, and everyone was very friendly.

I took a seat inside and ordered a macchiato (£2) and a sea salt chocolate ristretto ice cream (£2.50) — because why not? The coffee was very good. They use Square Mile beans and the macchiato was strong and smooth.

So delicious in fact, that the friendly resident cat, Toby, seemed to have designs on it. Luckily, he settled for a window seat and some people-watching.

The ice cream was a little too frozen to serve, sadly. I settled for a brownie instead. It was such a sacrifice. Oh, OK, it was delicious: gooey, nutty and with white-chocolate chunks. They also serve breakfast and sandwiches, and sell fresh bread.

Essentially, then, Fowlds is a really lovely neighbourhood spot and it makes me sad that Camberwell isn't quite in my neighbourhood; Bermondsey could definitely pick up a few tips on that front.

Fowlds Cafe. 3 Addington Square, London, SE5 7JZ (Tube: Er, no. Well, OK: Kennington is about a mile, but you should just get a bus).