If you’ll permit me a travel writing cliche – Austin during South by South West is a city of contrasts. The locals and the interlopers, the have lanyards and the have not lanyards. And nowhere is the contrast so vivid than on 6th Street – home to just about all of Austin’s bars. There they stagger – the locals; the fat men in cowboy hats arm-in-arm with pretty girls in ridiculous furry boots and micro-shorts. In sub zero temperatures and wind-chill up the wazoo. And there we march – the geeks and the musicians and the filmakers, subtly eying up eachother’s name tags and Twittering where the parties are.

Having decided against queuing for three hours to get in to the 16 Bit party tonight, Zoe (now officially the 24th most powerful blogger in the world, thanks to today’s Observer) and I headed down to some game party in what appeared to be an abandoned Apple Store.

There were mini burgers and feta cheese parcels a plenty, and an open bar – but absolutely no sponsor branding, which was – how you say – a missed opportunity given how much free food and drink was consumed. Hey ho, far be it from me to tell marketeers how to do their jobs.

Walking home, I stood idly by and watched a gang fight in which a man was repeatedly and brutally punched in the head while some girls in tiny shorts and ridiculous furry boots looked on and cheered in a mixture of encouragement and terror. I couldn’t say for definite – but I’m pretty sure none of them had lanyards.

A busy day tomorrow (today – damn you daylight savings), starting with an 11:30 session about what magicians can teach us about design. Expect to see a sharp increase in websites covered in glittery paper and smeared with hair gel. Also: rabbits and tigers. Then at 2pm it’s the Mark Zuckerberg keynote: “One point five billion reasons why I’m going to say nothing interesting and you’re still going to lap it up” – before heading over to the web awards and a whole host of after-parties including the highly-anticipated and largely-user-generated Moo.com party. A heckuva day, all in.

I’m also starting to realise that, in a few short days, Michael, Michelle and the gang are heading back to the UK and my solo trip begins. I’ve got my train ticket, a brace of Moleskines and the beginnings of a plan for the new book. I have absolutely no idea where I’m going to head first, but I’m actually slightly looking forward to things being a bit calmer. In the last three weeks, I’ve been in five states, taken two road trips, visited seven cities and met about a billion new people, only some of whom were wearing togas. After all that – and with a whole lot of South by South West still to come – the idea of getting on a train and trundling slowly across country with nothing for company except a Macbook and a digital camera is like a holiday from a holiday waiting to happen. I’m also going to eat nothing but salads and drink nothing but water.

Perhaps.

But that will have to wait – for now, the gang’s all still here (joined now by Caroline who is in from New York) and there’s a whole load of fun still to be had before we head our separate ways. And not least because I remain unarrested, undead and very, very unmarried. I reckon it’s time to up our game.