UPDATED! How to listen to BBC 6Music (and all the other BBC radio stations) if you are outside the UK

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I wrote a post on how to do this back in July. But things have changed.

First off: Yes, you can still listen live to 6Music with no issues and no restrictions here.
For other BBC radio stations, see here (scroll down for the list of links).

But if you want to use the BBC Sounds app, then a simple VPN connection will no longer suffice. And so here is a new post with a better method of doing things.

To rewind, listen back or use any of the other benefits that overseas users used to have, then you will have to open the BBC Sounds app, at which point you will be faced with the dreaded “The BBC Sounds app is closed for users outside the UK” screen.

Which is why you are here.

Thankfully, there’s a four stage process to get around this.

1. First, you’ll need an email address registered in the UK: one with a .co.uk suffix. If you don’t have one of those, you can get one free at mail.co.uk (you’ll need a UK cellphone number to register your account) or GMX mail (no UK cellphone number required).

2. Once you’re set up there (it’s a 5 minute process), use your new .co.uk email address to set a BBC Account registered in the UK here. You’ll need to enter a UK postcode to complete your registration. If you don’t have one of those, you could generate one here.

3. Thirdly, you will need a VPN, set to the UK. I use Nord and it works very well. If you also want to use Nord (because it works very well), please consider using my affiliate code to get a few extra months free for both of us.

4. Finally, go to the BBC Sounds app on your phone and CLEAR ALL DATA – DO NOT DELETE THE APP!

Set your VPN to the UK, open the BBC Sounds app, login with your new UK-based account and it’s like the good times never went away.

Remember to refresh your UK VPN server occasionally, and if you are using split tunnelling (if you don’t know what this is, you’re not using it) also make sure that the BBC Sounds app is not on your VPN app’s excluded list.

The fine print: I take no responsibility for anything, as ever. I’m merely documenting a process which allows me to use the BBC Sounds app. This method works for me, and I don’t feel too bad about using it as (really weirdly) my non-UK based smart speaker still allows me to do all the BBC Sounds things without any account changes, VPNs or postcodes. No. I have no idea why either.

Happy listening, Music Lover.

Too funny

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Therre are very few things on the internet that make me actually “LOL” in the literal sense of the initialism, but this was of them.
And I know that it will mean absolutely nothing to most of the people reading, but if you know, you know.

The deadpan, middle-aged woman just looking out of her window, knowing who that is and what he’s doing; quoting that line. Too funny.

More funny stuff from Moose Allain here.

Buy A Fraggle

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Dance Your Cares Away, etc etc.

But not your bank account. You’re going to need that.

It’s:

The Jim Henson Company 70 Years Anniversary Auction, and you can bid on – amongst several or more other things – a Fraggle.

Sure, it’s going to cost you up to $50,000 (that’s R875,410.52)(lol)(weep), but should you win, you will own an actual Fraggle.

There are 435 different lots, from a lot of different productions, most of which I have never heard of:

The top three are all Fraggle Rock related and are each sitting at $15,000, three weeks before the auction goes live.

Obviously, I don’t have the cash to mount any sort of challenge (although I haven’t checked down the back of the sofa yet), but these are clearly for the real fans out there who collect this sort of memorabilia.

If I remember (I won’t), we can check in again nearer the auction date and see just how much money it actually costs to own a Fraggle.

Internet ads

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Love them or hate them (and honestly you’re a bit of a weirdo if you’re in the former camp), they’re part of our everyday browsing and doomscrolling experience. And I get the gist how they work: looking at your behaviour online, and then targeting ads to best lever a little more money out of you for the things that you know, love and need.

Except… they don’t always quite hit the mark, do they?

No.

I promise you that I have not looked up, discussed or in any way browsed anything to do with condoms in the last twenty-plus years. But still, I got a condom ad this weekend. But it wasn’t actually the condom bit that really confused me. It was the combination of products that I was being offered.

Because for me (and each to their own here), nothing completes a night of passion avec perles et nervures (oh la la!) than a bit of time spent poisoning rodents. And it’s even better when your presevatifs and pellets are 55% off.

Talk about killing the mice mood.

Take this flight ad. Decent prices, sure. We usually put the R in front of the number, but whatever.
But wait a second…

Newcastle-upon-Tyne (a bit random) 3½ times the price of a flight to London? I reckon I could pop on a Kevlar vest and get the train from Heathrow to Tyneside for less than that R6150.

Just.

But beagle-eyed readers will have spotted an additional issue here. Yes, the flight to Cape Town (one way, subject to availability, change and search dates). R589 does seem quite cheap until you realise that you’re already in Cape Town. Turn up to the check-in desk, present your ticket to the agent and prepare to be looked at a bit funny.

“Er… Sir. You’re here.”
“I know. What a bargain, right? Got it on an internet ad.”

And then you look at the price for Joburg and you do some rudimentary calculations and you work out that maybe the internet thinks you’re in Bloemfontein or Kimberley.

Why would anyone be there?

And even if they were, it still doesn’t explain the condoms and rat poison thing, does it?

Finally (for this post, at least) there’s this:

What a selection.

Selected for me, though?

“Tempting Whisper” Body Wash – no.
Brown Onion Soup – no.
Coffee pods – ok, yes.
Deep Heat Spray – only on Wednesdays.
Cesar 100g – pretty sure that’s not actually a lamb.
Cat Food Sticks – absolutely not.

The thing is, they’re wasting their money with all this misaimed stuff, and that means that the prices for the things that I do want to buy from them (from all the ads above, it’s honestly only the coffee) are just that little bit more expensive.

It does make for a good blog post every now and again though, I guess.

Game changer

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I don’t claim to be an amazing photographer. I’ve taken some good photos and I’ve taken some alright photos, but I’m always still learning. But the one thing that I can never remember to do it clean my lens during a shoot. And because a lot of my shoots take place on windy beaches:

or in or around dusty horseriding arenas:

…this is often a big problem.

Of course, I always remember as soon as I open the image in Lightroom, and that’s when I start weeping about all the post-processing I’m going to have to do to remove the seventy-five dust spots per image.

I can be done. It is done. But wow, it’s a proper shlep.

Not any more.

New Lightroom thing ahoy!

The AI-powered Dust Removal feature in the Distraction Removal panel automatically detects and removes dust spots in a photo, created by dust on your camera’s sensor or lens.

I don’t like using AI on my photos (and so I don’t), but this basically just automates a task I was going to do manually anyway, so I think it’s ok.

And having given it a go, I now think it’s much better than ok.

Incredible. Three clicks and the whole lot sorted.

Not a fan of AI taking over every aspect of our daily lives, but actually quite a big fan of it doing this sort of thing for me, thank you very much.