Thanks. I’ve not been around in a while, and I thought that the question in the other forum, might have been in the wrong place.
I’ll give the code snippets you suggest here a quick try.
…time passes…
Things seem to be working. Just the error message.
Do you know if and how a change like this will be updated in the Co-Lab areas of the code?
Well, we’re working on that 
We do a lot to make sure that Google Colab is a guaranteed working platform, so once issues arises we tend to take care of them quickly
(pointing it out on the forums is one of the best ways to get my attention, and I watch out for Colab-related issues)
A big THANK YOU.
Looking forward to hearing about your success in updating this colab experience.
Thank-you. Please do keep us updated.
Colab just allowed me to subscibe for Colab Pro ( I’m from France ) without doing anything special (no VPN no US bank card). Their doc still show that it’s still available just in US and Canada but I think it will change soon.
Cheers !
They just announced that pro is now available in:
Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Thailand, and the UK!