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Many of our members here on Landscape Juice live permanently in or travel regularly to Europe on business.

There are a growing number of European based garden designers - I guess because it's easier to pack tools of the trade into a bag and take one of the cheap flights offered by the low-cost airlines if the need arises to fly back to the UK for commissions.

There is also a growing number of ex-pats setting up landscaping and small building operations in countries such as France, Italy and Spain (three of the more popular destinations).

When I first arrived here in France in 1994 the internet was still a slow and cumbersome beast and it was not possible to do a fraction of what can be achieved today.

Watching television is the easiest way to keep up on your favourite programmes. I used to watch Gardeners' World on BBC 2.

All you need to do is bring a Sky Box and your Sky viewing card and set up a dish on arrival. You just need to maintain a UK address to retain your Sky package.

It's not legal to watch the full Sky package but legitimate UK based companies get around this by allowing a client, who is based abroad, to use their address as if it were their own.

Watching TV on the internet

So much has changed in the way we consume news and television and most of us prefer to sit on a sofa or in the garden and watch video, films or television from there.

Unfortunately, if you wished to use BBC iPlayer or ITV Player you'll find it not possible. If your IP address is shown to be located outside of British shores then it is blocked.

There are several proxy server services which mask your location and allow you to use UK broadcast services as though you are UK based.

One of the better services is speedytv.co.uk - this is what it says on its website:

The Speedytv network will give you a fast and secure connection to one of over 25 UK based servers to obtain a UK IP address. watch uk tv abroadWhether for accessing geo-blocked content to watch free UK TV abroad, or as a security encryption method when using public wifi hotspots in places such as airports and hotels, our ultra-reliable and value for money, fast UK VPN service is perfect for you.

Low prices, unrivalled support and our very clever piece of software that will set the connection up for you, makes Speedytv the number one choice for UK VPN services. If you do have any problems our knowledge base and support system are always available to assist you.

I've used Speedy TV and it works very well. You can purchase access through Paypal from 24 hours (0.99p) up to 30 days (£6.00) with a renewal period of one year thereafter.

Speedytv is great for watching programmes on demand.

If you wanted to watch live TV on a tablet or desktop PC (even on a smartphone) then www.filmon.com is a great service.

It's free to use but you have to put up with adverts. If you pay up then the adverts are removed (except for the adverts on commercial tv, of course).