File this under ‘Cool Stuff My Friends Do’ – my friend, the lovely Ellie Wood, recently launched her vintage fashion website Ellewood Vintage. Focusing on ’80s culture and the fashion that was prevalent at the time, each piece on the site was hand picked by Ellie. Ellie is one of my running friends and every time I see her out of Lycra, she looks amazing (she looks ridiculously hot in it too, to be fair) – her flair for picking vintage pieces is really something special. Ellewood Vintage began as a pop up vintage market stall that built up a loyal customer base.

‘Ellewood Vintage is all of it. Its the fashion, the music, the icons, the hair. It is the opulence, the grime, the political and social changes, the ethnic diversity, the culture. Ellewood Vintage is London, it is street style, it’s experimental, its youth. Ellewood Vintage is not just playing dress-up it is an attitude, a statement, a revolution, a challenge, a no rules way of life.’ says Ellie.

I know how hard she’s worked on putting this site together and launching her business. Massive congrats to Ellie for getting it going. If you’re a fan of vintage clothes and the ’80s or even if you’re not, head on over to the site and check it out.

www.ellewoodvintage.com

It was my birthday over the weekend (I’ll wait while you do the obligatory singing, cake, candles, giving of gift cards etc….oh thank you! Done? OK). I’m never really one to go crazy on birthdays. I don’t do big celebrations or parties. I tend to keep it low key, treat myself to something I wouldn’t otherwise. Perhaps a little known Bangs fact that gets drowned out by my random love of hip hop and general badass attitude, is that I am a lover of musicals. Oh yes amigos, modern day ones make me cringe but give me some Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story, Bugsy Malone and I’m in heaven. After dropping a fair few hints to my other half, he ‘surprised’ me with tickets to see A Chorus Line on my big day.

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Last weekend, I was invited to St Martin’s Lane Hotel in Covent Garden for a little overnight staycation, followed by a personal training session at Gymbox. It’s not often I have an excuse to stay in a hotel five or six miles from my house, so I thought, what the heck, count me in! Living in London’s East End, I try to avoid the madness that is central London and as lovely as Covent Garden is, the tourist factor and sheer number of people can make it a stressful zone to go into. But my night at St Martin’s Lane made me want to take regular staycations there. And by ‘regular staycations’, I of course mean, ‘move in’.

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In last week’s episode of Girls, there was a really disturbing scene. I’ve been trying to process it since. It made me feel all manner of uncomfortable things and anger and sadness and disappointment and disgust. A woman was sexually violated in a pretty awful way and when the scene ended, you were left thinking, what the hell just happened? Except it’s clear what just happened. Then you go online or talk to friends and hear debates about it and realise that not everyone shares the same view of what should be pretty cut and dried. Except it isn’t. Because rape is still one big grey area. And with each new debate, we realise just how much more conversation needs to happen. We need to talk about rape.

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Ahh love. We all want it, nay, need it (according to John Lennon). But it sure is complicated, ain’t it? Finding it, staying in it, navigating it – no one ever said it was easy. But you know what? When you find the right one, it clicks – sure there are still ups and downs, but when you find your partner in crime, the two of you get in a groove and it works. But in the process of getting there, people often make lists of things they require in a partner. Many people list themselves right into a corner. Stick to your list all you want, but you may just miss out on ‘the one’ purely because they don’t quite tick all the boxes.

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We’re all putting ourselves out there online, some more than others. We share through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the like. There are apps where we can share what we’re reading, how we’re working out, how many calories we’re ingesting, what images we like, the videos we make. We are really leaving no stone unturned in our sharing these days. We’re sharing each other’s successes, likes and dislikes and in some cases, some of this is turning into us straight up resenting people. It’s important to remember, now more than ever, what we share may not actually reflect the reality. To all extents and purposes, we are essentially curating our lives online.

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All my layyyydeeeeezzzzz!

Today we celebrate how far we’ve come and reflect on how much further there is to go.

I’m surrounded by incredible women and have been lucky enough to meet women along my journey who have given me their time, energy and insight, which has in small or life changing way, contributed to who I am and who I’m becoming.

My mother and grandmothers (one no longer with us, one still kicking ass) have been a constant source of strength – these towering beacons of power who have wrapped me up in love, taught me, guided me and shown me the way simply through living their lives day to day in an inspiring way. You can’t move a mountain every day but these women have, chipped away at life, overcome hurdles, headed up their families and paved the way for me to live my life the way I do. I show them gratitude daily but on days like today, I reflect on it more.

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Finding that warm spot on the floor as sunlight streams through the window

Having a nap in the middle of the day

Laughing so hard your face aches

Dancing like no one’s watching (but asking them to join in if they are)

A hug for no reason at all but just at the right moment

Giving up your seat on the tube for someone and seeing the relief in their face

Spending time with like minded people

Running a half marathon with the sole aim of simply enjoying it

Running a half marathon and seeing your friends pop up at random points on the course to cheer you on

Sending flowers to someone you know is going through a hard time and knowing you may have lifted their spirits even slightly

Sharing a laugh with a stranger

Random acts of kindness

Dancing into the wee hours with your friends til your feet hurt and your legs give in

Texts from your parents that can say nothing at all but are steeped in love

Finally being comfortable with yourself

Giving your time and energy to someone who needs it

Turning the pages of a book you love

Releasing the bad stuff to make room for more good

This moment right here…

I wrote about the documentary Catfish when it first came out. Recently, I’ve been seeing the term ‘Catfish’ bandied around online more and after some investigation, discovered the guy behind the Catfish documentary, now has a TV show of the same name on MTV. For those of you unfamiliar with what exactly ‘Catfish’ means, it’s when people have an online relationship and it turns out one (or both) of the parties involved aren’t exactly everything they made themselves out to be. Ahh, people making up false identities online – always a good time. Or not, as the case may be. And I know this, because….dun dun duuuunnnn….I once got Catfished.

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Hey there amigos. So, if you follow me on Twitter (or unfollow me due to me tweeting about doing anything exciting, as the case may be) you’ll know that I’m currently in New York for a couple of days. Adidas have launched a new running shoe called Boost and they invited me along to the global launch today in Manhattan to see what all the hype is about. And let me tell ya, it’s like being slapped in the face with technology. There’s a whole lot going on in that shoe. Yohan Blake and Hailie Gebrselassie were there, as were Rosario Dawson and that chick who plays the wife in Homeland (which, hello, total girl crush. Also, I rate anyone who rocks up to an Adidas launch wearing thigh-high high-heel boots).

Anyhoo, I’ve written all about it over on my Spikes and Heels site.

Right, I’m off to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks. Byyyyyeeeee!