In years to come, they won't remember who had a smart comment during the match, they'll remember who was always a tough competitor, every time."

Kieren's Under 10 footy coach. 2009. (Brett "Cunza" Cunningham).

We are Geelong, the Greatest Team of All

At the end of what could just be the greatest day of all, I'm sitting here sipping a Baileys and trying to find a way to savor the feeling of watching (for the third time today) the Grand Final replay.

Geelong have just beaten St Kilda for the 2009 premiership. Geelong are premiers for the second time in three years. It is still surreal. I hate that word, but that best describes what I feel. The game was so close all the way. Like Geelong last year, St Kilda probably deserved to be premiers this year, as they did so well all year. But it's all about being there at the end, being ready, and being in a position to win the flag. And Geelong were. Their players are so tough and so professional, but there's so much more than that now-a-days. The professionalism you need extends beyond the players, to the coach staff (Collingwood sacked a midfield coach before the finals and fell away immediately) and fitness staff (Geelong were trained to the minute!) and so much more. Geelong defined this a couple of years ago, and now, no one can take away from us, two premierships in three years. At times, I never thought I'd see one at all. In 2007, I saw a record breaking win. I knew we were a great side, but something inside me said "Well at least I've seen my side win a Premiership". Well today, I saw us become a champion side for the ages!

From now on Geelong have to be rated with the Brisbane, North Melbourne and Hawthorn sides of the past 20 years. I was a member during this time, and I'm bloody proud to be a Geelong-ite in '09.

I'm imploring the boys to remember this. If it takes another 44 years, it will be 2053 until they win another. Kieren would be in his 50's and I'll be a sprightly 83. Who knows? At least, I've seen a couple now, and I'll be off to Kardinia Park tomorrow for another Geelong premiership family day with Rachel and the boys.

It doesn't get any better than this!

"It was as excited as I've ever been in my life. Doin' it with people you love workin' with. Mmm!"

Mark Thomson. Post-Grand Final 2009.

"You don't catch up with blokes that won other "Norm Smith's" you catch up with blokes that you won Premierships with."

Paul Chapman *Norm Smith Medalist and dual premiership play. September 26th 2009

We've been "toing and froing" lately regarding the "buy vs build" question. I think we've been secretly hoping for the perfect house to land in our laps, and given our budget it would probably have to be about $20K or $30K under priced. In fact we did find one almost perfect house, and

as expected, our offer was about $20K too low.

So last Sunday, after trolling through the display village a the Quay

estate in Torquay and pouring over the land releases therein, we took the plunge and put down a holding fee on one of the blocks there. The rest of the deposit will be paid later in the week and come the end of November, we ought to be land owners...then the fun begins as we start the building process. This probably won't happen until next March.

We also have our eye on one of the display homes in the estate which we would like to build

so now, discussions begin with Porter Davis, as we try to get our heads around "extras", "as displayed" and any other traps for new players that threaten to turn the whole exercise to custard.

Here's a couple of pics, for prosterity...

Kieren and Toby "playing in the park" opposite our place - across Anchor Lane

Our block: corner of Anchor Lane and Offshore Drive

Toby and Kieren in front of the new block.

Unconditional

Just for the record - the sale went unconditional today!

The couple and "her" mother came for a quick look through this afternoon. Sounds like they are really excited about moving in which is great! A young couple, ready to start a family, and they're really excited about moving into "our" (well "their") house. Cool.

Counting records in a SQL Server table

Counting the number to records in a table is something you need to do from time to time. Especially for long running processes where you need to have some clue as to what's instore, if for no other reason than to provide feedback on progress, in terms of percentage complete.

Until this morning, I though select count(*), or select count(field_name) was my only option. That bugged me because select count(*) can't be efficient, and select count(field_name) is tricky to make generic because you don't always have a consistant field name to use. It ought to be possible to write something that simply takes a table name as a parameter and tells you how many rows are in that table. Turns out, there is!

It's explained here - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/links/894320/119638 (although you need to be a member of the site - free - to read the article I think.)

It boils down to use of a stored proc: sp_spaceused. You pass the table name and one of the rows returned by the proc is the number of rows in that table. (Just as it should be!) Nice.

The contents of the proc vary for SQL 2000 and SQL 2005/2008 but the proc is still around.

In the name of Security

My bank sent me a letter last week stating that there was a suspicion of some fradulent activity on my debit card and that they were taking the precaution of replacing it.

Now the card was not cancelled. I could keep using it until such a time as I could make my way into my home branch to collect my new card, at which point the old one would be cancelled and destroyed.

I found it strange that my card would continue working under the suspicion of fraud, but the facts weren't clear. There certainly had not been any suspicious or unaccounted transactions on my account. So far so strange!

Anyway, a couple of days later another letter arrived informing me of my new PIN. In the name of security it arrived on a purpose built form, where you tear a small portion of adhesive paper placed behind the new PIN away, supposedly revealing the new PIN, amongst a scrawly pattern of black "squiggles which is only visible when you hold it up to the light or against a white background.

Fail!

I could make out the first digit with no troubles. The remaining three were either 000 or 003 - or so I thought.

I took this "security" form into the bank when I went to collect my form. I explained the problem of having no way to read my PIN....blank face. At this point I made my questionable decision in all this - I decided to show the teller what I meant. Now she did acknowledge that she shouldn't, which I respect and asked her to do it anyway. So she did, quite decreetly and acknowledged she couldn't read it either.

We decided I should try what we thought it was, once, so as not to lose the card in the ATM. I did so, and of course, it didn't work.

I went back into the bank at which point a not so discreet teller came over, took the letter and annouced to basically the entire bank what she thought the number was. A little disgusted, I pointed out that in an over zealous attempt at securing my information, Bendigo Bank had just made it infinitely less secure because about 12 poeple now new what my PIN is - or at least what it may be. Turns out she was wrong too, so I left it.

The more helpful teller has requested a new PIN, which is on the way. Meanwhile, I can't use the card at an ATM or EFTPOS. Thanfully the card also has a credit facility which I can sign for so I shouldn't be stranded. I can also reset myPIN at any ATM once I receive it - I just hope I can read the next one!

House under contract

So the we accepted an offer which was really the first serious one and right in the middle of the acceptable price range and the house is now under contact. We're just waiting on the purchases finance to come through, supposedly this week and it will go "unconditional".

We currently change our mind two or three times a day about how much we should spend on an established home, or whether should should consider building.

View Larger Map

Today it's down to Torquay to check out house and land packages in the Quay Estate. A decent block that won't cost us a fortune in landscaping might just be the "ticket". We'll see what happens. Still in no great hurry which is unusual for me.