Peter Glaeser

I would like to thank everybody for their birthday greetings. I’ve been a little bit for a couple of days so I couldn’t really do much this weekend. But I’m still glad you all remembered this special day. I’ve received tons of messages by email and through Facebook, Xing and other social networks.

I have to apologize to those who tried to reach me on my mobile phone. The first person called even before 9am, way too early for a Sunday, especially a birthday Sunday. So I just turned the damn thing off, went back to sleep, and forgot to turn it back on again. There were a lot of missed calls and in the end the battery died.

Yesterday Berlin was hit by what Germans call “Blitzeis”. It was raining but the ground temperature was still below zero. So all the rain turned into ice within a few minutes after hitting the ground. There were about five hundred of car accidents and two hundred people got injured because they simply slipped while walking on the street.

Just to let you know that the new anti-smoking regulations went into effect with the beginning of 2008. It is now prohibited to smoke in any publicly accessible building including restaurants and bars. There are two exceptions only:

1. Bars, clubs and other locations that do not serve food are allowed to create separate smoking rooms.
2. You turn your bar into a club that is accessible for members only.

Today it was really nice to go out for lunch and leave the restaurant without the usual smell. I really appreciate the fact that I won’t have to wash my new winter coat after every restaurant or bar visit.

I’m quite confident that this new law is going to work out. Smokers seemed to be absolute cool about the new regulations and went outside. But then again, it’s been like that in several countries for years already, even in Italy …