Wow! Well this has been a strange 48 hours.

Quick catch-up:

Having raced around London on Thursday evening to pick up a Nokia N95 to use in SXSW, I hot-footed it to the Media Guardian Awards with Stef and Pete who were picking up an award for Created in Birmingham.

Those who follow the above pair’s Twitter streams will know the evening was… well… eventful. Pete and Stef will have more to say on this than I as, I’m ashamed to say, I missed witnessing Pete’s “Jarvis Cocker” moment. But, considering how disappointed all the nominees from the blogging category were about their lack of recognition at the awards (and how much free alcohol was flowing), I suspect someone was going to do something.

Then, after an hour’s sleep in a Travel Inn, we trudged bleary eyed (and sore of head) over to Gatwick for the flight to Houston, Texas. Quick change in Houston onto a flight to Austin (including a very nice chat with the immigration officer who was amused when I defined my profession as “being a geek” – he even told me a Star Trek joke).

Nowwe’re in the Fairfield Inn, Austin which has free wifi (why can’t UK hotels do this?!) and waiting for the other three SXSWM-ers to arrive.

Here are the obligatory shots of the view from my room:

and…

Stef, being the dynamic and frankly enviably capable person that he is, has already organised for the SXSWM-ers to meet a fantastic array of people here, including Phil Campbell, the guys from Viddler and Shawn Morton from Profilactic. I am so excited about this!

Right, got less than ten minutes to grab a shower before we’re off to check out the parties. Remember to visit the SXSWM website to tell us what to do. And, if you’re in Austin – get in touch!