No, the same! I used to play ice hockey and other ice sports too a long time ago but football is really it.

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

The most interesting about Cricket seems to be it's tea times and the length of the game. But I must say I've never seen a cricket game. When we see a glimt on tv in sweden it's usually because some kind of animal has occupied the court. :) 1: Football (soccer), 2: Football (soccer), 3: perhaps Volleyball

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

I'm trying to use PIVOT instead of CASE but can't make it, what's wrong with the pivot query below? create table t1 (a int, b char(5)) go insert t1 values(1, 'SVE') insert t1 values(1, 'FIN') insert t1 values(1, 'DAN') insert t1 values(2, 'SVE') insert t1 values(2, 'FIN') insert t1 values(3, 'SVE') select * from t1 a b ----------- ----- 1 SVE 1 FIN 1 DAN 2 SVE 2 FIN 3 SVE (6 row(s) affected) -- SQL 2000 with case works select a, max(case when b='SVE' then b else '' end) as b_sve, max(case when b='FIN' then b else '' end) as b_fin, max(case when b='DAN' then b else '' end) as b_dan from t1 group by a a b_sve b_fin b_dan ----------- ----- ----- ----- 1 SVE FIN DAN 2 SVE FIN 3 SVE (3 row(s) affected) -- SQL 2005 with pivot, this select doesn't work! select a, isnull(['SVE'], '') as b_sve, isnull(['FIN'], '') as b_fin, isnull(['DAN'], '') as b_dan from (select a, b from t1) p pivot ( max(b) for b in ( ['SVE'], ['FIN'], ['DAN'] ) ) pvt; a b_sve b_fin b_dan ----------- ----- ----- ----- 1 2 3 (3 row(s) affected)

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, old C64 player

My son is really into soccer, 13 year, training all days... so there must be good teams around otherwise he go home with the first flight. He's quite big (177 cms) and plays with older players) Here in Sweden we have lot's of young unemployed academic IT pros, maybe I should send them to you?

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Of course, it's one of my favourite films, ssen it > 5 times. The question was really why do we call Australia Oz, and what should the wizard do in Australia? I expected folks to read 'between the lines' :)

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Sounds like the little brother to Aus. What's for my family there, except the nature? We enjoy soccer, volleyball, many forms of skiing among other outdoor interests.

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Vancouver was raining all winter someone said... You are right we have to take a long summer holiday in Canada before deciding anything.

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Ottawa sounds nice! I do now think I will leave the west coast behind, but then someone suggested Kelowna BC, so it's not easy for me to sit here and think about places I've never seen. We have to take a long summer holiday in Canada next year!

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

I like the small town life, Örebro is about 120' citizens and good communications to stockholm and Gothenburg, but we are in-country, so we really miss the seaside :^) We got lakes too but really good natural bathing is 60 kms away. What's nearest biggest town to Kelowa and distance in km?

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

OK, I have a look, thanks!

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

I'm 39 (soon) and I'm not that entusiastic to learn french, but I know it's hard to avoid this if we move. That will be some kind of bonus :) The main language for my children to learn is still english.

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

We go bathing in the summer and avoids swimming pools. Sometimes wintertime I do like the finnish guys use to: first som training, then sauna and a bath outside maybe +7 in water and then sauna again. This is a national tradition among our neighbours the finnish people. On Thursday I go to Island for six days and three days leisure, they got a lot of hot springs, I've nevere tested this before. Hmmm, oil for most swedish people means Dallas and JR Ewing :laugh: I've got a lot diskussions with my family before anything is decided. Thanks for your answers!

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Everybody here got their personal opinion and I'm fascinated by the huge bunch of answers I've got! Yes, better wages in US but maybee less good family life. We like to travel by bike when in our small town Örebro (just 120 000 citizens). But then I maybee must go to work by car for 30 kms or so if we should live in a small town like that. Now I have some pros and cons for Calgary, a lot of opinons!

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Thank you very much for your nice answer! Soon I can write a complete tourist guide for non-canadians intersted in canada. Montreal sounds very french to me but I trust you they are english speaking most of them. I will tell my family we have to go for a hliday to Canada next summer!

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

As I told Chris I've talked about Austalia with my wife and she's quite concerned about sharks and other scaring animals in Australia, or maybee she was afraid of aboriginals or something. So Australia was the first small attempt and the second place I could imagine my family should enjoy was Canada. We got a long winter in front of us to think about living somewhere else. I don't know why they are hesitating, I like the swedish winter, they don't! They should persuade me that we should move to Austalia :) Otherwise I think Canada is the english speaking country most like sweden. But who says we must have it exatly like in sweden, then we better stay at home! I think I start with my son aged 13, he's easy to handle, he knows that Australia plays soccer much better than Canada! And the english dialect are more fun in Aus. A question, who is the wizard from Oz?

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

sounds nice up there! There's nothing wrong with my spirit but I'm far from there yet! I've got a very careful wife to convince and it won't be easy :-D It will take a lot's off efforts from my side with house keeping and other things I'm not used to do at home. A problem families may have in sweden is that both mum and dad has to work 100% full time (because of the low wages) and then there's of course less time to catch up children's activities, house-keeping own activities friends... and so on. This may be a great advantage and argument for moving to Canada. Now the clock is 17 here and I end my working day. It's 14 dgrs rainy and I will take 5-10 kms running in the forrest 7-10 mins with bike from my house. It's quite easy living in my town Örebro, just too short summer and poor good natural bathing capabilities nearby.

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Of course the swedish government consideres all people coming to sweden as immigrants, but there's a big different made between work and refugee immigration. No new citizenship, just a relaxed stay for some years should be enough. But the only thing I knew is that it's hard to know anyything about the future :)

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Thanks, I will end up with a long list of places to visit! Living costs and costs are living. I won't take a job as C/C# programmer, I'm too old for that. SQL programming makes more fun and working as DBA is easiest for me.

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Well, I'm from Sweden and I can tell you we learn very early in school that "Himmelsbjerget" (Heavens mountain) is the highest hill in Denmark. And if you go there you see all of Denmark :-D

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player

Very good answers from you :) You are probably one of the best guy to ask for advice around here and I maybee do so later on if it becomes more serious. I also think the job part will be the hardest thing to figure out. Finding a stable, growing company with good staffing with normal wages... I knew this will probably take some time and as usual, it's after my two first months or so in office I will notice what kind of company hired me! Since mu last name is Nilsson, I mostly keep out of way from all Anderssons and rest of them, but I think the ones who spell their names with just one "s" are born canadians and the ones with two s are immigrants from sweden and other nordic places? Right or wrong?

Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player