I've said it before and I'll say it again, cos I have a tendency to repeat myself, especially after a glass or two of the old Russian Champagne (which is all one can purchase in the way of wine at the moment) but I have so much more fun communicating with people who don't speak English. There's a lot to be said for body language, facial expressions and mimes! And in the process of speaking with someone who only understands 10% of what you are saying it doesn't matter if you say the wrong thing because they don't understand anyway – in a nutshell, it's very hard to offend someone, unless you use some vulgar body language which could be interpreted as an insult. So the past two days have been very pleasant for me, communicating first of all with my landlady and her boyfriend about, among other topical issues of the day, Top Gear: using the most minimal amount of English. Haha how we laughed and threw merit towards the fantastic programming of the BBC for their universally understood themes. Then, today I have spent the day with my landlady's mother who speaks even less English (well, none, to be precise) her granddaughter (who hasn't even begun to speak) and the dog (who tries to speak I'm sure). We understood each other perfectly, and when there was doubt, we just smiled and nodded, or growled in the case of the sabbotchka (that's the puppy)! Perfect way to communicate with anybody to be sure.