Easily one of the best scenes from one of the best movies of all time.

Eddie Izzard showing everyone they're actually not that bad at understanding French.

Brilliant Bond...

Last night I had one of the most terrifying experiences I can recently recall. I've been working hard this week, some late nights but more importantly churning through things at a furious pace and with unrelenting energy. As I settled into bed last night I switched on BBC iPlayer to watch a show I'd missed before going to sleep. As I did I noticed some small sparkling lights in the middle of the screen - 'how annoying' I thought, '...the screen has cracked'. As I checked the screen I realised it wasn't the Macbook that was faulty, but my own eyes; I'd arrogantly assumed in my invincible youth that I couldn't be at fault.

Having spent twenty minutes carrying out a purely customary investigation (splashing water into my eyes, covering each eye and refocusing, blinking furiously, etc.) I diagnosed that it wasn't anything in my eye. This gradually became more worrying as my vision got worse, I couldn't focus and the small sparkling lights spread into a giant blind spot. I couldn't see anything other than blurred images. I tried to focus and couldn't. All I could see was shapes and light. I was blind.

It wasn't a pitch black blindness, but a total inability to see anything in detail - only a change in light tone which gave me some indication of where my laptop was but wasn't much help in a dark room at 11pm. I began to panic.

What I was most fearful about was waking up in the morning and my sight having gone completely - I recalled stories of people waking one day unable to see, and that was it for the rest of their lives. I kept opening my eyes in the hope it had cleared but it hadn't - if anything it had worsened - I lay there cursing. I felt so unbelievably powerless to do anything, and so just closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

I woke this morning with a start, immediately testing my eyes and attempting to read an old newspaper on my floor. My mind was obviously accelerating much faster than my body, as it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust and emerge from their slumber, but as they did and as the words began to form and make sense a wave of relief crashed over me. Over today I felt pathetic for such a panic, but I did realise how important little things are in making your life what it is.

I'm not going to turn this into a soppy 'I thank god for everything I have' post, but I do feel a certain need to refocus (no pun intended) on looking after myself. I've started this year with a bang, having committed to run the Great North Run for Alzheimer's Society and intend to be in the best health I can be in a year's time. I've pledged to myself not to waste my youth and I think last night was a reminder how easily things can be taken away from you. I have since been told it was most likely a migraine without the headache, something I'd never experienced before. This does give me some limited comfort, as I'm not sure I could handle my life without my sight.

"The British screwed us..."

-Hank Paulson as Barclays pulled out of Lehman rescue

Greg Wallace is back!

Ray Gosling, a very brave man. The issue of assisted suicide or euthanasia has been given a high profile because of recent cases straddling the legal line - some resulting in prison, other resulting in freedom. All, essentially, ending someone's life because it's deemed not worth living. It's no easy question to answer, or to put in law, as nearly all cases need to be heard on an individual basis. I think the important question should be, what would you do?

Times reporter gets manhandled out of a BNP meeting in Essex. What an open and democratic party they are.

"On the male equivalent of Valentine’s Day, men would be woken by their partners dressed in Victoria’s Secrets outfits who would then go on to perform lap dances before cooking them a full English breakfast which they served to them on a tray in front of the early morning repeat of Match of the Day."

Toby Young - getting it right...again

Interesting concept, the workings of which I'm not inclined to discuss. However, it does address a ridiculous arrogance fostered within The City that they deserve to soak up taxpayer cash which would ordinarily be spent on schools, hospitals and kit for our troops abroad, just to keep themselves in a job.

"I work for a bank that didn't take taxpayer money to prop us up". No, the whole industry benefitted from taxpayer support and either explicitly or implicitly your job was saved at great cost. Comments like the above only show the stupidity within finance which got us into the mess we find ourselves in now - greedy people who don't know what they're talking about. Awesome.

I've sent my application for the Great North Run...the biggest Half Marathon in the world. When you've got over my lunacy I'd appreciate some sponsorship. I'm (hopefully - bar a cock up) running for Alzheimer's. Details to follow...

"Reading the reports of Alexander McQueen’s death you would think we had lost an Oscar Wilde or a Jimi Hendrix. “He was a genius,” says Katharine Hamnett. “What a terrible tragic waste.” “His brilliant imagination knew no bounds,” says Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman.

I’m always skeptical when the word “genius” is bandied about by the fashionista — more or less everything is “genius” in their world, as in, “Love that belt, darling. It’s genius.” I oversaw an Alexander McQueen fashion shoot for Vanity Fair’s Cool Britannia issue in 1996 (styled by Isabella Blow) and the thing that really stood out was the cult of personality he had managed to create around himself. He wasn’t a conventional Alpha male, but he was one of those people who used his shyness as a weapon — a form of passive aggression. When he finally appeared on set, at least two hours late, he was surrounded by flunkies and skulked around at the edges, radiating hostility. The impression he gave was that participating in a photo shoot for Vanity Fair — a privilege that would vastly inflate the amount of money he could extract from credulous advertising agencies — was a colossal chore, far beneath his dignity. He was a rock star. Everyone else was a groupie."

- Toby Young on Alexander McQueen

We're launching the biggest offensive on Helmand over the next few days. I know a few people out there, so good luck boys, keep your head down, stay safe.

Just realised those 'off the shelf' buyers of Esquire this month had to put up with De Niros ugly mug when I got Talulah Riley's as a subscriber. Winner.

Copenhagen - awesome. My first dipped toe into Northern Europe/Scandinavia, and it won't be my last.

Some cool pictures from the Facebook Group 'Secret London'. Don't know why everyone I know seems to have now joined it but it has some good stuff in there. Even cooler because the protest one has my office in the background.