A couple of weeks ago when my mom was about to leave for Moscow I asked her if she would have time to go to that store and maybe buy some Spanish dictionaries and self-teaching books for me.

This morning my mom was finishing her Moscow - Warsaw - Kalisz twentysomething hours train journey. I texted her asking how it was going. Guess what? I got a reply in Spanish, and then a mixed Polish/Spanish(/lack of Cyrillic on both our mobiles) conversation ensued!!! Some of the messages were extremely amusingly transliterated and it was very heart-warming and funny. Did I mention my mom generally only speaks spoke two languages: Russian and Polish, though she would only admit speaking Russian and bad Polish?

¡Mamá, eres estupenda!

It’s got the beats. It’s got the strings. It’s got the piano. I’m still not sure what it is exactly, but it’s got a bass clarinet/sax or oboe/bassoon! It’s Polish. And it’s got that something… That something that music by Yoko Kanno, Luis Bacalov, Metheny & Mays, Morricone, Jobim has. Jamiroquai has it sometimes (and used to have more often in the early days). Something the Boris Dlugosh’s version of Moloko’s Sing it Back definitely has. (Actually, Novika even sounds a bit like Róisín Murphy…)

Anyway, today even my kettle sings (whistles) in tune! Ah, the Tricks of Life…