The last, and I mean the very last thing a man, even an ant man like myself, needs on the morning after the night before is good advice. I was woken by my girlfriend Antonio saying, in a painfully loud voice, “You know the best remedy for a hangover always has and always will be to leave alcohol well alone.”

Stupid thing to say! And me? Feeling really dreadful, I turned over muttering, “Keep your voice down, please!”

You'll have guessed by now that the Berlin Airports New Year's Reception was last night. And naturally I was there right in the middle of things, joining in. “I enlarged my blood vessels, stimulated my circulation and raised my blood pressure,” as Antonia explained over breakfast in a tone befitting a speech at a financial results press conference. But she had certainly seen through me, “You've been drinking alcohol!”

Well, okay, that's one way of putting it.

But it really was a fantastic reception because this year we invited our guests to a rather unusual venue – to the underground BBI station right in the middle of the BBI construction site. That's where we've made the most progress so far on the future Capital City Airport .

The shell of the Capital City Airport 's “basement” is finished. And how far we have otherwise progressed was something our 1,000 or so invited guests, including Brandenburg 's Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, were able to see for themselves.

But that was yesterday. Today it's everyone back to work. No excuses! And Antonia has put a pickled herring in my lunchbox, just in case. It's supposed to help, she said.

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