Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • Power BI Fun With Travels

    I’m back from a great vacation. I had the chance to visit two new countries (for me and my wife) and many new cities as we cruised around the Adriatic. We also had a chance to see our daughter, who is in school in Leuven.

    I’ve been tracking my travel for years, partially for fun, and partially with my boss so we can try not to overload me. I capture some data, which helps me understand where I’m going, as well as how far I am from home. I’ve written about this a few times, and showed the image below in my 2023 year in travel.

    This lets me see a frequency of travel at a glance, as well as how far I am from home. That June above was a tough time with too many trips too close together, all of which were far.

    I decided to have a little more fun, as I have a map in my Power BI report. I filtered travel by year, and then recorded myself clicking through the years. This spans 2014-2026, and as you can see, I have some very wild travel patterns across the years.

    I bet you can also guess where 2020 falls in the animation.

  • A Last Minute Trip to the EU

    My life has some crazy travel stretches for sure. Between speaking, office visits, customer trips, I can be on the road a lot. As it is, I’ve flown across the Atlantic six times this year, and now I’m coming back from a 7th.

    I wasn’t planning on this trip. However, life doesn’t always go as planned and we have to roll with the changes.

    My daughter is heading to Lueven University (KU Leuven) for graduate school. My wife and one of my sons planned to take her and help her get her apartment, bank, etc. set up for school and do a little tourist time. Her other brother decided to go as well, with the plan to leave on 10 Sept and come back the next week.

    I was left out because I have to be in San Diego on Mon, 14 Sept. I have had too many 50 hour trips to other countries, so I was going to stay home.

    However, my wife got injured from a horse and can’t fly. She’s OK, just uncomfortable and flying isn’t an option. We were planning on using her status to take extra clothes, better seats, etc. Without that status, it’s a very expensive trip (or an uncomfortable one). Since we had an award ticket, moving me into her slot (with the same status) works. It also gives the kids someone to lean on.

    So I flew Thur to Brussels, helped get things set, and I’m back home today, making my way to San Diego. The kids were going to Paris today, so they won’t miss me.

    Life in the EU is rough, isn’t it?

    In any case, republished editorial, vacation day taken, and it’s going to be a long day today.

    If you can avoid it, I recommend against 4 days trips to Europe from the US (or the reverse).

  • Redgate and Rome

    I’m at the UK Redgate office today, meeting with senior leaders in all areas of the business. I was honored to be awarded a spot in our President’s Club. This is where the top performing sales people get to meet with leaders in the company and then head off for a few days of relaxation and excitement.

    I’m here today and tomorrow and then off to Rome. We’re heading to tour the city, see the Vatican, and visit some great restaurants. I’m excited for the trip and I’ll have a few photos and thoughts next week, but I’m off this week.

    Hopefully it’s a quiet one for you.

  • SWAG Saves the Day

    PASS Summit East is in one week.

    I was on the road last week in the UK and then Houston for the Houston AI-lytics event. I had been a little under the weather all week, and when I arrived in Houston, I decided to stay in the hotel and rest. Plus the 6:00 arrival was midnight for my body.

    I walked next door and got some takeout and then grabbed a beer from the hotel store to relax and get to sleep early. Unfortunately, the bottle needed an opened. Fortunately, I was prepared.

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    This little opener is a piece of swag I got from Redgate years ago and I’ve kept it in my bag for just such occasions. No walking back to the desk, no disappointment, just a handy item that let me relax and get to sleep by 8.

    I don’t know what swag Redgate or others will have next week at the PASS Summit East 2026 in Chicago, but if you don’t go, you won’t know. Register for the event, book a flight, come join me.

    Sure, you might get some just-in-time training from a precon that lets you learn about PostgreSQL from Grant and Pat or how to secure your estate from Andreas. Did you know Andreas did this job for Microsoft for years, architecting security features?

    There are lots of sessions where you might get inspired by a demo or get a question answered about your environment. Those are great, but who knows what SWAG you’ll find. You might get a handy tool you didn’t expect that saves your day, or night.

    Send yourself. Send a colleague.

    Send someone today to learn a few things, connect with others, and collect some swag. Register for the PASS Summit East and join me in Chicago next week.