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On Monday, I made the most extravagant purchase of my life. My new wraparound sunglasses cost a cool £4,620. They don't have a famous brand name etched on the frame and they are for night time use only. But it's what's behind the glasses that counts.

Three days earlier I'd visited Sheraz Daya at the Centre For Sight to see if he could correct my eyesight through laser eye surgery. My infallible optometrist of 17 years, Nigel Burnett Hodd, does not recommend laser surgery, but he'd advised me that if I did have it, I must go to Mr Daya.

The results of my eye examination gave Mr Daya full confidence that he could fix my short sightedness and astigmatism. Not only could he return my sight to 20/20, he believed he might do even better.

I didn't know then that better than 20/20 was possible. But I do now. Just 24 hours after surgery, my eyes were tested again and I now had 20/20 vision in my right eye and at least 20/15 vision in my left. They might improve further still over the coming weeks. For comparison, my eyes had previously been around 20/100 while the best a human can see is about 20/10.

The operation itself took about 45 seconds per eye and was almost painless. I had been sedated but was still conscious. Mr Daya was pleased with the operation and I my sister drove me home with my new sunglasses and a collection of eye drops. For 4 weeks I will wear the sunglasses while I sleep to prevent me from rubbing my eye and I shall administer eye drops regularly during the day.

The outcome is remarkable. My left eye sight is outstanding - better than I have ever experienced with glasses or lenses. My right eye sight is good enough for all daily tasks though my hunch is that I will need repeat laser surgery to improve it further. If so, that will happen in 3 months at no additional cost.

I'll update this post after my follow-up consultation in 4 weeks time with my progress.

The house price crash always was a matter of when, not if. One year on, the BBC has covered the story again and it's experts all agreed that it has started, that further falls are inevitable and that it was a good thing for the UK.

The Newsnight discussion was prompted by yesterday's Nationwide report showing a fall in house prices for the fifth consecutive month. That means average UK property prices have fallen, month-on-month for 5 months. It's conclusive proof that a crash has started and when you take other factors into account (the credit crisis, rising inflation, American recession, possible UK recession, mortgage interest rates going up - yes, up) it looks like it will be prolonged and severe.

But there are two sides to every story and who better than the Daily Express (self-proclaimed as "The World's Greatest Newspaper") to tell the true story? "House prices still on the rise" is today's front page story in an undisguised attempt to sell more newspapers by telling their punters what they want to hear.

The article helpfully points out that prices are 1.1% higher than a year ago, without mentioning that the market has been falling non-stop for 5 months. Using that logic, we see that the stock market is on the rise too. The FTSE 100 is higher than it was 3 years ago and it's much higher than it was 20 years ago. Why are traders so gloomy?!

Back in the real world…

• Nobody can forecast accurately how severe this crash will be. There are too many unknowns - how deep can the losses get before other banks collapse, how will the public react to falling house prices, how will it effect the economy and job prospects. One thing is for sure, the public has borrowed too much money for too long and the banks have called an end to the party. It's payback time.
• The Daily Express is just another cheap tabloid with no credibility, no journalistic integrity and littered with errors.
• The world's greatest newspaper is actually The Economist. If you have not read it, register for a free weekly email news summary or subscribe here. It is published once per week and only covers issues of consequence. You get to read things that really matter, written by outstanding journalists published as one lightweight magazine.

If you visit Malacca, never stay in the Heeren Inn.

My family was attacked by bed bugs on Friday night in the Heeren Inn. The hotel owner did not care.

We stayed in rooms 207 and 208. The bed bugs attacked in the early hours of the morning and the itchiness woke us up. We assumed that the bites were from mosquitoes. Later in the day, the bites became inflamed and uncomfortable. When I described what a bed bug looks like, my mother realised she had found one that morning on her bed.

My mother has more than 50 bites all over her body. Her face too - eyes, nose, cheeks, forehead, chin, neck - are red with bites. The feeling is uncomfortable and painful. Sophia and I have about 20 bites. I've taken my mum to hospital twice and she has had one steroid injection, one Piriton injection and has been given 5 days of Piriton tablets to try to ease the pain.

It's terrible for this to happen on my mothers holiday. I am torn to even publish the photos here, the bites are so severe. I've since removed the photo of her bitten face because it's too painful for me to share. It's my responsibility to look after my mum while she visits us in Malaysia and staying in this hotel was a big mistake.

I explained the situation to the hotel owner. To my shock, he would not give us a full refund. He claimed he did not even know what bed bugs were, so I showed him photos from Wikipedia and explained that:

• Bedbugs are normally carried into hotels via guests baggage.
• They live in dark places such as floorboards or under furniture.
• The bites are very uncomfortable and last for more than 7 days.

He still refused to refund the 156RM room cost (£25 / $50US). After much discussion, he offered me 56RM saying that we "should pay something for the room". I told him that we would be "paying" for his infested hotel room for the next 7+ days and declined his stingey gesture. The money is not important, it is the principle that matters. You cannot ask people to pay for a room with bed bugs.

The very least he should have done was give a sincere apology and a full refund. But in fact he showed that he does not care what happened to my mother. What a money-grabbing, selfish man.

Now I'm telling other people so they can avoid this painful mistake. You can help me by linking to this page so people can avoid the Heeren Hotel and learn how to protect themselves against bed bugs.

Advice to travellers:

• Ask the hotel / guesthouse / backpackers what they do to avoid bed bugs. They are a common problem in tropical countries and hotels should have a pest control procedure in place.
• Bedbugs can live in any room, including clean-looking ones.
• They are more likely to be found in high turnover accommodation with guests moving from one hotel to another especially backpackers, though they can be found anywhere.
• As a very rough rule, the more you pay for a room, the lower the chance of bedbugs is.
• If you wake in the night to the feeling of insect bites and you cannot hear the buzz of mosquitos, then you might be being bitten by bedbugs. They normally feed between 3-6am. Often they bite a few times in the same place - sometimes 3 bites in a line or a ring.
• They can live for 18 months and they can survive without feeding for up to 12 months.
• Some people have only a small reaction to bedbug bites.
• I still have not found an effective remedy to reduce the discomfort of bites. Coconut oil can help. Piriton (injection or tablet) can also help. If you know of a good remedy, please, please, please leave a comment below.

I have been attacked by bedbugs (and trust me, attack is the correct word) in Australia, Indonesia, and twice in Malaysia. They are the nastiest bloodsuckers of them all.

Please note that the Heeren Inn is not the same as Heeren House. Heeren House is a different guest house in Malacca and looks like a pleasant place to stay.

Malacca is on the west coast of Malaysia and is sometimes spelt Melaka, Melaca, or Malaka. Heeren Inn is spelt just like that and not Heren Inn, Herren Inn or Herron Inn.

Weddings are a bit different over here in Malaysia. Instead of being married, having the ceremony and taking photos all on the same day as we do in the UK, each of these is done separately.

Yesterday, we had our "pre-wedding photo shoot" in Kuala Lumpur, safe in the hands of Robin Ng - professional Malaysian wedding photographer.

Robin has just posted some of the shots on his blog. Go on over and amuse yourself looking at us posing for the camera. I'm starting to appreciate how tricky Charley's job is!

Adverts are being shown on the BBC website for the first time ever.

It's shocking to see 2 large banner ads dominating what was a masterly crafted design.

The BBC website used to be the only high quality advert-free news service in the world (Wikipedia is the closest free equivalent). But due to the last Charter Review it now looks like all the other news websites of the world: distracting adverts, cluttered pages and messages encouraging us to consume, consume, consume.

It's a cop out. Another nail in the coffin for alternatives to capitalism. The BBC was a bastion; living proof that there are better alternatives to private businesses providing news and entertainment.

Four reasons why this is wrong:

1. No longer for sharing

Only people outside the UK should* see the adverts. Foreigners don't pay towards the BBC, so apparently it's fair for us to show them adverts to help pay for it. But we don't need any more money! The whole point of the BBC is that it is funded through an annual License Fee. The British public pay £135.50 for their TV license. If we're already paying for the content to be created, why not just let the rest of the world benefit from it too? The BBC is something that we have always shared with the world. We should be proud to continue sharing it, rather than pimping it out.

2. Destroying values

Adverts devalue your image and turn people off. By placing adverts on your website, you turn into a salesman. The relationship between your visitor and you changes. No longer are you providing something for their benefit free of charge. It reduces trust and it reduces the perceived value and credibility of your service.

3. Conflict of interest

BBC.com managing director, Kym Niblock, said:

"To have these global brands [British Airways, Airbus and Hublot] on board as our launch partners [advertisers] is a great validation of the thinking behind BBC.com. We're looking to generate revenue for the BBC by monetising its international traffic and these advertisers show the hunger that's out there for the audience we can offer."

Do you think that the BBC is likely to publish a negative news story about any one of these companies now that they are receiving £millions per annum in advertising from that company? If you are funded by the public, you will serve the public. If you are funded by advertisers, you will serve the advertisers.

4. The beginning of the end

This could be the beginning of the end for the BBC. It's historic success has been made possible by it's unique method of funding.

If an increasing share of it's funding comes from advertising, the BBC will become just another broadcaster chasing the advertising dollar. Let's not let that happen. At the next funding review in 9 years time, let's change the funding sources to public money to preserve the values of the BBC.

*I can see the adverts from my house in Reading, Berkshire. The BBC's ad-serving technology uses your IP address to determine whether or not you are in the UK. The system is apparently 99.96% accurate, but it mistakenly thinks that my computer is outside the UK. I've reported this so that I stop seeing the ads.

Video search company Blinkx has made it possible for anybody to make money from the videos they post on their website or blog.

Their clever technology (called AdHoc) analyses the content of a video and then displays relevant adverts for it. When someone clicks one of the adverts in the video, they share the revenue with you.

Here is an example:

Did you notice the advert above the video? It took less than 1 minute to set that up.

How to do it

1. Find a video you want to share( go to YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe or a.n.other).
2. Copy the embed code from that site.
3. Paste the embed code into the form here: http://adhoc.blinkx.com/newvideo
4. Enter a password and your PayPal email address.
5. Blinkx analyses the video and outputs the embed code for your website/blog.
6. Write your blog post / webpage as usual and paste in the Blinkx embed code.
7. Someone watches the video on your site and clicks the (contextually relevant) advert. You earn money! Blinkx pays it into your PayPal account once you've earned $20.

The catch

The big downside is that an advert costs only $0.05 and Blinkx only pays you some of that (they don't declare how much, but I guess 50%). So it is going to take a loooong time before you can give up your day job. On the other side, 5 cents per click is amazing value if you are an advertiser, so get over to Blinkx and set-up a campaign to get some cheap traffic.

If you've used Blinkx AdHoc on your website, please leave a comment and tell us how much have you earned from it.

For the last 600 miles, my Volkswagen Polo 1.4tdi has been running on a mixture of diesel and vegetable oil.

It's an experiment I've been wanting to run for 2 years but I'd been put off by the antiquated Inland Revenue taxation regime on fuel. That was scrapped recently so you can now put vegetable oil in your car without paying fuel duty. (Check that your car can run on biodiesel before trying this!).

I have done no modification to my 2001-built VW Polo so I was a little apprehensive for fear of damaging the engine. The car is designed to run on diesel, but the handbook states that it can run on up to 50% RME (Rapeseed-Methyl-Esther) mix, so I should be safe. Some diesel engines require modification because vegetable oil is more viscous and puts more strain on the fuel pump. It can also be harder to start the engine in winter.

To minimise the risk, I used a 1:4 mixture in my first tank. My mix is:

• 80% diesel
• 20% vegetable oil

The fuel tank capacity is 10 gallons (45 litres). So I put 9 litres of vegetable oil into the car, then filled it up with diesel.

The price of diesel recently rose above £1.00 per litre. Vegetable oil costs about 55p per litre in the supermarket. So, by using a 25% mix, I saved about £4.05 on a tank of fuel. On my next tank, I will use a 50% biodiesel mix, and will save over £10 per tank.

There was no noticeable change in the average MPG (miles per gallon) - I recorded 68mpg which is what I achieve with standard diesel.

Biodiesel is, arguably, better for the environment than diesel. It comes from a renewable source and the CO2 emissions are equal to the sequestrated amount when the vegetable grows, so it is carbon neutral. However, some people believe that it is contributing to the destruction of rainforest as Malaysia, Indonesia and other developing countries cut down their rainforests to plant palm oil, which can also be used as a biofuel.

Seeing as I am burning sunflower or rape seed oil, I don't think I am having a direct effect on rainforests. But if I wanted to run the ultimate biodiesel car, I would copy my mate Adam and collect used vegetable oil from the local fish and chip shop, run it through a filter then stick it in my car. It's free and it's an otherwise waste product. Everyone's a winner!

If you want to investigate biodiesel, there are lots of useful websites. I recommend this one to start with.

The lights are up in Oxford Street.

The shops are playing Christmas songs.

The local council has put up its Christmas tree.

Which begs the question… Is it Christmas?

We've just moved in to our new house Reading, Berkshire. It's a nice little place with plenty of space for the two of us. Paul has done an amazing job of renovating it throughout.

Sophia is turning one of the rooms downstairs into a yoga and Pilates studio. She is teaching private classes and group courses of up to 4 people. She had her first booking yesterday!

If you have friends in Berkshire who are looking for a Pilates/yoga teacher who can work wonders, please point them to these pages on Sophia's website… yoga in Reading and Pilates in Reading.