Hi Mr. Prokhorov,
I want to talk health and fitness now, because you said that exercise for you is some sort of a drug. Not necessarily good choice of words. "Drug" sounds harsh. It associates with addiction and no will power. When you say that, it opens up another question "what other addictions he might have?" On TV you could say "it's my biggest hobby, I love it, I'm hooked on it, can't do without it, seriously." It would be the same thing, only in much softer and friendlier way.
Rigorous exercise followed by endorphin release can leave you euphoric high. So some foods and some type of music. In case of agility and muscle building, it can help. That's good that your metabolism is good, so you're still slim and trim. You look good and you're very tall. Very tall looks dashing, but you have to pay attention to your heart. Why should I talk about this and what do I know? I have a Certificate called "Medical Nurse in Military Reserves" from former Soviet Union. Here, in NY, I've got 2 more technical ones. One of them is EKG. This was in early 90's. I was new, my English wasn't good enough for Journalism, I've got a job in medical office in dieting business. Americans are getting heavy and we have specialized places helping people to lose weight. There was a Medical Doctor, 2 medical assistants, trainer and the nutritionist. In the gym trainer would work with them specifically on their different body parts. It was small, as we call it "boutique" type, but busy with "high end" clients in most expensive area (UES) of Manhattan. To give an idea, the first visit was $400, stress test was $1400, every hour of exercise with the trainer was ... etc, etc. There also was a medication for some. I loved that job. Generally I'm very good with people, I'd listen to their stories and that's what they needed besides their diet instructions and exercise regiments. Most of overeating can start from psychological reasons before growing into physiological problems. First is the stress, constant pressure, worries, etc. I learned that men after 40's or 50's (depend on their type) recommended to take small dose of Aspirin daily for heart health. The Doctor I was working with also was taking just for prevention. At first I thought it was weird, because culture I came from didn't think about prevention. Men smoked, ate fatty foods, didn't exercise, dropped dead of heart attack in their 50's. No wonder average life expectancy still in Russia for men is 60, for women is 73. Women tend to be less reckless toward life and their bodies, I guess. So the recommended dose of Aspirin in USA is 325mg a day, in France (Europe recommends it too) it's 90mg.
Heart is a muscle and it has a heavy duty job of pumping blood. Lots of it. Without break. Poor thing never stops. For taller than average person it has more of a pressure, it works overtime. When I saw your picture it came to my mind right away. Doctor would check it out first too. So, you don't need to get sick to remember that everything we have has its limits and better safe than sorry, right? You need to take good care of it everyday to be able to achieve all those goals in sports in your 80's that you're planing. Here in America it wouldn't be surprising. First President Bush at his 80th birthday skydived. When came down he addressed people of his age on TV saying "get off your butts, do something!" Good for him! He was an overachiever all his life and he still keeps up with it.
Thank God I never had a weight problem, I used to be on a thinner side, now I'm perfectly normal for my normal height. My patients wanted to know my "personal secret." Many of them asked me out for a dinner just to get it out of me. I was telling them that I didn't have a secret. They always thought that I was being "too extreme" in my professionalism. When I felt that I learned enough and I left that job, I've got a "thank you" letter from the Doctor praising my work. I was pleasantly surprised of the kind words, such as "it was an honor to know you" and "you made the program a success." I didn't expect it, thought I was just doing my job. I called and asked what made him to do that. He said besides that he genuinely felt himself that way, all the patients were asking for me, some threatened that without me they wouldn't go there anymore. He had a hard time convincing them that it was my decision to leave.
I still have that letter. I threw away recommendation letters to Columbia University, but kept that one.
I don't exercise, though. Don't know why. Maybe because I don't need to? I don't like gyms. Don't enjoy having strangers sweating around me. I walk a lot. Prefer fresh air to air conditioned spaces. In Manhattan I can walk hours and not to be bored, especially when my favorite talk show hosts keep my brain stimulated with their fast thought processes.
Take care of yourself.
Best regards.
Monday, April 12, 2010
From New York With Love (part 8)
Hi Mr. Prokhorov,
Today I noticed that this blog already can be found on Internet. I'll try to contact some people who know you to let you know. Because you don't use computers, I hope they will print this out and give it to you. Paper is better anyway, it's more relaxing and tolerant than an electronic screen.
Let's go to France, shall we? Not literally, please. I have no desire.
I lived there for a year and a half; 2 winters and a summer, from 2006-2008, in south, Cote d'Azur. I was there when your news broke. I couldn't care less, I wasn't following, didn't have any opinion about it.
Recent decade, according to their press, Russians bought more than one billion euro worth of property in South of France. I personally wouldn't buy anything there. I mean - nothing. How do I know about Real Estate? I have a License in Real Estate in NY. I sold other people's properties and bought and sold mine.
When I've got there I was thinking to stay for couple of weeks, go to Paris, see my friends and come back. I fall in love. It was smaller, slower and quieter than NYC.
I loved French language, use to be very good at it, used to play piano with their popular songs and sing them in French. I wanted to remember, bring the feelings of those happy years of my life back. I rented an apartment in the center of Nice, on Ave. de Jean Medecin. To make my long story short (I can write a book about this), I discovered fraud after fraud. Every day one nasty thing after another. But dog waste - I have no words. The entire country in swamped in it. We have a saying in America "In France you can't walk your head up." That's not a joke, that's scientific truth. You have to walk your head down to watch out for dogs' sh.t. In couple of weeks I saw more of it than I had seen for 16 years in NY. Most French are arrogant, don't like anybody, but they despise Russians, especially the rich. They think that all of them are crooks with dirty money and by buying all those properties they are bringing prices up and hurting their buying power. Practically that's not false - the buying part, but do they do anything to buy themselves - is another question. They also didn't want to return St. Nicolas Church in Nice to Russian government after the contract was over. They are half socialist country and like entitlements from government. Half of the year consist of vacations, weekends, holidays and strikes. One man said to me "French are the world champions of "striking." I agree. I felt I was half way back in former Soviet. Same nasty faces in service, only there I was paying not rubles, but the highest currency of the world. Everybody who had business said that people in their right mind don't go there anymore. Especially Americans, they don't get their money's worth and they won't tolerate that type of service. French think that they above and superior to anyone, that speaking another language is degrading to them. When they hear English language they feel they're being colonized. They're control freaks.
The only people they don't feel superior to are the Americans. They're just jealous of us.
Now, what happened between you and their authorities I don't know and don't care.
One thing is clear to me: they had a reason or not, they'd love to teach you a lesson, show that you were on their turf and that they were in control. Another sad factor in Nice was that some Russian ladies at nights were walking on Promenade des Anglais for no good reason. It's a beautiful sidewalk, but when I realized that, I stopped going there for walks in the evenings. Although I don't have bleached hair and don't walk on high heels and don't even look Russian, still was approached, because of the trend created around that area. When it was getting dark, I'd just go home.
Europeans are much more territorial and controlling in their behavior than Americans. USA is very big, Americans are bigger, happier, richer and they're not jealous of anybody. That's the difference.
Why did you worry about apology from French, I don't know. In your place I wouldn't care less to waste energy on it. By demanding it you were showing that it had importance to you. Maybe you needed it as a proof for important people in your life, who knows?
One thing you did good - not buying that big house. Too bad you didn't have a good lawyer to point out that you had only 7 days to rethink. Even if you'll not get your deposit back after appeal, you still won. That's a chum change for you anyway. Don't you worry, you can make it in NYC. Who knows what kind of bad energy that place has from burned skeletons in closets. All sorts of crooks lived there. You don't want to put your name under theirs. You can start yours - build new, modern, contemporary, energy efficient and much more convenient. I have an idea and example for you.
Who needs an old rotten big house full of ghosts? And the maintaining of it? Are you kidding me? Who is going to watch out, hire people, pay them, make them work? You can make French work??? Oh, la-la... They would rip you off and laugh out loud. You have money to throw away? I'll show you where the garbage can is.
Do you know what General De Gaulle said about French men and their work ethics when he became President of France? It's interesting...
Best regards.
Today I noticed that this blog already can be found on Internet. I'll try to contact some people who know you to let you know. Because you don't use computers, I hope they will print this out and give it to you. Paper is better anyway, it's more relaxing and tolerant than an electronic screen.
Let's go to France, shall we? Not literally, please. I have no desire.
I lived there for a year and a half; 2 winters and a summer, from 2006-2008, in south, Cote d'Azur. I was there when your news broke. I couldn't care less, I wasn't following, didn't have any opinion about it.
Recent decade, according to their press, Russians bought more than one billion euro worth of property in South of France. I personally wouldn't buy anything there. I mean - nothing. How do I know about Real Estate? I have a License in Real Estate in NY. I sold other people's properties and bought and sold mine.
When I've got there I was thinking to stay for couple of weeks, go to Paris, see my friends and come back. I fall in love. It was smaller, slower and quieter than NYC.
I loved French language, use to be very good at it, used to play piano with their popular songs and sing them in French. I wanted to remember, bring the feelings of those happy years of my life back. I rented an apartment in the center of Nice, on Ave. de Jean Medecin. To make my long story short (I can write a book about this), I discovered fraud after fraud. Every day one nasty thing after another. But dog waste - I have no words. The entire country in swamped in it. We have a saying in America "In France you can't walk your head up." That's not a joke, that's scientific truth. You have to walk your head down to watch out for dogs' sh.t. In couple of weeks I saw more of it than I had seen for 16 years in NY. Most French are arrogant, don't like anybody, but they despise Russians, especially the rich. They think that all of them are crooks with dirty money and by buying all those properties they are bringing prices up and hurting their buying power. Practically that's not false - the buying part, but do they do anything to buy themselves - is another question. They also didn't want to return St. Nicolas Church in Nice to Russian government after the contract was over. They are half socialist country and like entitlements from government. Half of the year consist of vacations, weekends, holidays and strikes. One man said to me "French are the world champions of "striking." I agree. I felt I was half way back in former Soviet. Same nasty faces in service, only there I was paying not rubles, but the highest currency of the world. Everybody who had business said that people in their right mind don't go there anymore. Especially Americans, they don't get their money's worth and they won't tolerate that type of service. French think that they above and superior to anyone, that speaking another language is degrading to them. When they hear English language they feel they're being colonized. They're control freaks.
The only people they don't feel superior to are the Americans. They're just jealous of us.
Now, what happened between you and their authorities I don't know and don't care.
One thing is clear to me: they had a reason or not, they'd love to teach you a lesson, show that you were on their turf and that they were in control. Another sad factor in Nice was that some Russian ladies at nights were walking on Promenade des Anglais for no good reason. It's a beautiful sidewalk, but when I realized that, I stopped going there for walks in the evenings. Although I don't have bleached hair and don't walk on high heels and don't even look Russian, still was approached, because of the trend created around that area. When it was getting dark, I'd just go home.
Europeans are much more territorial and controlling in their behavior than Americans. USA is very big, Americans are bigger, happier, richer and they're not jealous of anybody. That's the difference.
Why did you worry about apology from French, I don't know. In your place I wouldn't care less to waste energy on it. By demanding it you were showing that it had importance to you. Maybe you needed it as a proof for important people in your life, who knows?
One thing you did good - not buying that big house. Too bad you didn't have a good lawyer to point out that you had only 7 days to rethink. Even if you'll not get your deposit back after appeal, you still won. That's a chum change for you anyway. Don't you worry, you can make it in NYC. Who knows what kind of bad energy that place has from burned skeletons in closets. All sorts of crooks lived there. You don't want to put your name under theirs. You can start yours - build new, modern, contemporary, energy efficient and much more convenient. I have an idea and example for you.
Who needs an old rotten big house full of ghosts? And the maintaining of it? Are you kidding me? Who is going to watch out, hire people, pay them, make them work? You can make French work??? Oh, la-la... They would rip you off and laugh out loud. You have money to throw away? I'll show you where the garbage can is.
Do you know what General De Gaulle said about French men and their work ethics when he became President of France? It's interesting...
Best regards.
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