OK, I might have been homesick ...

How could I not be? Thanks for bringing it to my attention, my brother, Rogan Josh. The Cats were thrashing Melbourne and I was speaking to my entire family on the telephone who were watching the game and celebrating Poppa Blog's 52nd birthday. Meanwhile, I waited for a train that was more than five hours late.

To cut a long story short, after seeing, hearing, meeting and getting the autograph of the legendary John Vanderslice (another week, another photo with a talented musician), I hot-footed it to the train station, 45 minutes before it was to leave. Then I was told it would be three hours late.

So I went to a local and mixed with the "locals" - Minnesota had just beat the hometown Seahawks in the last preseason game for both teams. Then I went back to Amtrak and was told the train was further delayed. We finally left at 2.15am, more than five-and-a-quarter hours behind schedule and got in to Vancouver at 5.45am. As K-Beezer says, you get served lemons, you make lemonade! Sour lemonade. In short, I missed JV giving me a personal rendition of "Me And My 424" as he said he would. But I did get his autograph and I'm better for it.

Now, I am hammered at Katsy K's place in Vancouver. She's pictured with yours truly. Some sleep would be good but it's all good. Tomorrow (or rather today) I'll try and look around Van City. I also found out that Captain Morgan was really a captain. The story goes that the captain (his first name was Henry) was a legendary buccaneer whose great charm won him the respect of noblemen and the loyalty of his crew. I'm truly vindicated.