Retro FM

Driving along Almaty's avenues (yes I'm one of those road hogs now) it gives me great pleasure to tune in to Retro FM 91.7, where all the old Russian classics get played. I love the Jingle 'RetroFM!!!' and strangely I feel nostalgia for all these old pop songs I never heard before. It's clearly hard-wired. and my favourite hit is by a woman called Natasha Korolyeva. It's called Malinkaya Strana which means little country.

Natasha bears a passing comparison to Paula Abdul and she married a strip-dancer called Tarzan. The whole experience oozes kitsch, and well, I owe her for helping me learn a little extra Russian. Thank you Natasha, you little minx.

Malink-aya Strana, Malink-aya Strana, Kto minye razkachat Kto pakajat, Gde Ana Gde Ana, Tam Gde Sigda Visna. Little country little country, who can tell me, who can show me where she is where she is? There where always it is spring.

I promise to write about Tajikistan next time. It's a little country, but it's certainly not spring there.