Basil is nearly up to full strength after two full days plugged in to the mains but we feel a bit tied down. Never mind we will be free tomorrow.

We went for a long walk this morning along the Mar Menor. There was a breeze and so there were a number of kite surfers and wind surfers taking advantage. On our way back we stopped in at the campsite restaurant, having been tempted by a sign for fish, chips and mushy peas. I noticed that the German and Spanish translation only mentioned fish and chips! Don’t the Germans and Spanish get mushy peas with their fish and chips? They don’t know what their missing.

Unfortunately the restaurant only seemed to have one waiter and he was rushed off his feet. After having waited for 15 minutes without being served we cut our losses and retreated to Basil for a sandwich. Better for our waistlines I suppose.

I’ve also been working on a photo album for Sarah’s 60th birthday later this year. I scanned in 160 photos before I left home and am spending many happy hours editing them before putting them in a book.

Before I came out I registered, for a small charge, with Nord VPN. VPN for those that don’t know, stands for Virtual Private Network.

When I connect to Nord VPN, as I understand it, an encrypted connection is established between my computer and Nord VPN. Not only does that make it much more difficult for hackers and the like to access my computer but a beneficial side effect is that it appears to any website I connect to that I am not “Tim’s Computer” but instead that I am “Nord VPN” or rather one of the thousands of internet addresses controlled by Nord VPN.

The reason this is advantageous when you are travelling is that some British websites, the BBC to name but one, will only allow people to download and watch their programmes from within the UK. By connecting to Nord VPN in the UK the BBC thinks I am in the UK and allows me to access their restricted material.

The BBC and others have got wise to this and are constantly trying to stop access through VPN internet addresses but big VPN providers are constantly creating and changing the addresses making it difficult for the BBC and others to keep up.

We have a quick internet connection on this site so I spent an hour or so downloading some BBC programmes. I have almost certainly breached the BBC’s terms and conditions but I pay my licence fee, so I don’t feel guilty.

No door of the day but two birds of the day: Black Redstart and Monk Parakeet. The latter really being a South American bird but they previously escaped from captivity and have established themselves in Spain.