I spoke at the Melbourne SQL Server Users Group on Monday, October 12, 2009. The group meets at lunch time the 2nd Monday of each month in downtown Melbourne. I spoke on Getting the Most Out of the SQL Server 2005/2008 Profiler. The group is hosted by Greg Low, and sponsored by SolidQ Australia.

I has fortunate enough to drive from the SQL Down Under Code Camp in Wagga Wagga to Melbourne, the Sunday before the user group meeting, with Greg Low and his lovely wife Mai. In fact, I was their house guest that same night.

Since I have been in Australia, this was the first opportunity I had to do any traveling by car, and it was a great opportunity to see the countryside. Although I didn’t see any live kangaroos on this trip (I did see some during my train ride to Newcastle), there were about 10 dead kangaroos along the sides of the road. Apparently, kangaroos act a lot like deer in the United States, which have a habit of running onto the highway in front of moving cars. I also saw a live Australian Brown Snake on the highway, with its head up and ready to strike at approaching cars. These snakes are considered one of the most deadly in Australia. Other than that, the countryside reminded me of the countryside in many parts of the United States. If we weren’t driving on the “wrong” side of the road, I couldn’t have known I was in Australia for most of the car trip.