In my current job, I get to write data extracts.
eg. extract data from an SQL database, using Microsoft Access as the front-end. Not my preferred tool, but it’s what I’ve got.

Thought it would be useful to brush up on my T-SQL, so I purchased the book on the right.

Best darn little book I’ve found on Transaction SQL. The 10 minutes refers to each lesson. And there are 30 lessons all up. This will be a book which I’d going to end up using as a quick reference.

Now if you want to teach yourself T-SQL, I’d suggest the following:

1. Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL
2. SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services
3. .Net Framework version 2
   (if you don’t already have it)
4. Membership of SqlServerCentral.com (it’s free), the question of the day is worth it for knowledge reinforcement.

Update August 2009:
Writing SQL Queries: Let’s Start with the Basics, by Microsoft is worth reading as well.

1. Life is not fair. Get used to it.
7. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he’s not going to ask you how you FEEL about it.
15. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity…

You can buy 50 Rules Kid’s Won’t Learn in School here.

There’s not a Qantas counter at Heathrow departures. You line up at the British Airways counter.

It was good to start the journey home. Had a quick look though the duty free shops. It’s all junk, trust me. Stocked up on water. BA airline club was jammed packed. Had a shower to wash all the grime off.

Onto the aircraft, another aisle seat, but it was a centre aisle seat which meant that the couple next to me could exit out the other side.

Dial up the A/C vent, strap myself in, and watch the safety presentation. That’s the last I remember until waking up 3 hours later, feeling hot and bothered.

The A/C vent was off, not sure how it happened, but I do feel awful.

Get up for a stretch and walk. Get back, turn the A/C vent back on, and start reading Churchill’s Bodyguard.

A/C goes off, as the woman two seats over closes my vent.

“Excuse me, but what do you think you are doing?”
‘It’s cold’
“It can be adjusted, you should have asked first”
(thinking to myself, ah so this is the phantom vent closer).

Singapore
The British Airways/Qantas club at Singapore has metal knives. Amazing. Metal knives are considered too dangerous to have at airline clubs in Australia, but here’s a selection of them in Singapore. good thing I’m not a terrorist ain’t it.

The “free” telephones don’t have a dial tone. Spent 25 mins trying to find a work phone. Found one in the business PC area.

Singapore to Melbourne
Back on the aircraft, Mervyn has swapped seats with his wife, the phantom vent closer. Turn A/C vent up full and belt in.

Finish Churchill’s Bodyguard, and arrived into Melbourne.
The landing? That’ll will be the pilot’s three “touch and go’s” for the year.

Queued up for customs – Answered YES to two questions on the customs form

Been to a rural area? Any foodstuffs?

Which guarantees being sent down the “something to declare” line. The customs guy asked where I’d been (rural England) and what I had (BBQ sauce), and after a bit of a conversation, said “Fair enough, off you go”

Melbourne airport to home
The taxi driver was an Aussie!, not a new Australian.
Dropped my work gear at work, and travelled home.

The dogs were happy to see me. Slept.

Reference(s):
Cabin photo pinched from here.