Experience SXSW 2026 with me! From boomerang flights to lost llamas, douche canoes to space camels, it sure is a trip. scroll down down down if you wanna start from the Beginning…latest day at the Top!
TUESDAY 23rd March
Thanks everyone for your appreciation and support- updating by popular request!
SOOO technically the 19th March was the last day of SXSW hence lack of live blog action.
but the Leg Saga has proved compelling reading- so how could I leave it there?
You’ll be happy to hear that I’m currently still in Austin soaking up the rays, bones are knitting together slowly and am awaiting medical evacuation home.
Since the nerve blocks came out wheeling around has been PAINFUL so I’m resting and taking time to heal! I’m learning a lot about wheelchair navigation in particular all those previously invisible bumps- and the difficulty of getting into those pesky, fast-closing lifts!
Sophie is heading back tonight, she has been an absolute superstar and could not have survived without her.
Thanks so much for all your good wishes and support. It means a lot! We are absolutely determined to be back here at SXSW next year on two feet and raring to go! The live blog will also be BACK next tour/conference for sure as it’s been a lot of fun, I hope you will agree. Until then sending you many purrs! Xx
THURSDAY 19th March
0900 longest sleep yet! Wake refreshed and reach for the blood thinning injections and my phone to…wait for it, call the insurance again
1000 Sophie brings up our regulation 3 eggs and coffee and we touch base on the day’s plans. It looks like we aren’t flying tonight which is an issue as she’s working several other jobs. Plans are made and more calls are made.
1240 Sophie and I head to the annual PRS post SXSW brunch. Joe has kindly invited us. Wonderful group of people, lush tacos and great vibes. Plus full wheelchair access!
1400 Joe and Westley direct us to the best bird listening/sun bathing/remote working spots. Cannot overstate what diamonds these people are! Wonderful to be invited to hang out to take mind off leg situation.
1500 we head on over to the birds and alcohol free vibes and I catch up on this blog while Sophie does some remote work
1600 some gentle shopping and epic denim purchases. Still getting into the wheelchair logistics, everywhere seems full of bumps and kerbs!
1800 we head down to catch the bats. It is truly spectacular! Evidently there are over a million and seeing them dancing in the air all pouring out of the bridge I can believe it! Really want to know where they all go during the night. And also how they all cram into the bridge each day! A wonderful end to the day.
WEDNESDAY 18th March
0630 Jetlag strikes, but it’s handy because evacuation plans are looming…we have only a few hours before we get chucked out of our hotel room! I crack open the oxycodone and get going on calling the insurance a few more hundred times.
0830 After the tenth call, the insurance confirm they will cover the flight back and hotel extension for both Sophie and me. Hooray! I do a little wiggle in bed and let my guardian angel know that they are back in Business Class for tonight’s flight.
0930 Helen and Sophie pop in with 3 boiled eggs and a strong coffee.
1000 after a friend in England has a brainwave I discover you can hire wheelchairs in Austin. Not only that but they can deliver it to me within an hour. And it only costs 50 dollars for 3 days.
1130 Wheelchair is downstairs! Can’t believe it. So good. Now I can make meeting with Alberto Chapa from Ableton this afternoon!
1245 Insurance finally covers both our rooms so we aren’t getting evicted from the hotel anymore! They are looking into a medical escort for the flight home.
1400 Helen has discovered a place with the best salads!
1430 Sophie and I figure out the wheelchair settings. How do you put the leg out on this thing? Finally get downstairs and order wheelchair taxi
1440 obv there are no wheelchair taxis, so we get an uber xl
1455 Arrive at hotel- dishy doorman pushes me up to meeting. We discuss his previous knee injury and wheelchair days.
1500 meet Alberto. He is a dude. We plan a zoom later in the month to look at my Ableton setup
1530 SXSW done? Not quite! Sophie realises that there are VIBRATING MUSICAL HAMMOCKS here. We head to the bar to pick up a non alcoholic cocktail en route
1540 networking prevents us from hammocking straightaway
1550 we make it to the hammocks! So excited someone made these. Spiral Dial fans will know that musical hammocks figure hugely in the serial so its super exciting to see a physical model in the real world! Obv with my leg I am a spectator. Sophie is all in though.
1600 lounging sipping drink listening to live music while Sophie hammocks- heaven!
1630 we head down to catch the last set on the grass. Negotiating ramps is …interesting! Getting a full on wheelchair reality check!
1800 we mosey back as there is a flat route so Sophie kindly offers to push. Its tricky for me to keep my leg braced/in position and push at the same time! Lovely to be out and moving in the sunshine
1900 Hotel and chill time!
2300 get extra Tylenol and plaster tape uber eatsed to my door. What a country!
TUESDAY 17th March
0700 it’s morning! Back in the hotel and feeling surprisingly energetic post op.
0830 down to breakfast on crutches
0900 long morning with foot up making insurance and hospital phone calls, meanwhile Sophie meets with Bella Mascheroni from Disney on my behalf
1230 Head over to UK House for our panel discussion. Really happy to see the team!
1345 Ascend the stage using the tried and tested bum shuffle method.
1400 Have a really lovely discussion with Sally and Rosie expertly facilitated by Marc. Meanwhile Sophie is hard at work chasing the flight plans.
1500 meet with Tom Spencer who I’d missed on Friday due to our flight delay. We have a great chat about all things tech and make a potential podcast plan. Meanwhile Sally Currie from Drake Music steps in to meet Sharma Hendel from Adobe as I’m not able to make it round there in time.
1600 Dan from British Underground helps me decamp outside to hear some awesome bands play. I get my own armchair and prime position! Karmachine are ROCKING the stage and the sun is shining. So nice to hear some music! Sally from Drake Music brings the best dance vibes!
1700 Joe Frankland from PRS comes to the rescue and puts the word out in the SXSW WhatsApp group. Is there anyone who would swap their Business Class seat with me so my broken leg can get home OK?
1900 a lil hobble on the crutches to outside the road closures- seems like a very long way! Sophie supports me and guides me into the Uber as we make our way slowly back to the hotel for more flight planning and resting leg
1930 An angel has offered to swap their seat with me! I cry a little bit. They have asked not to be named. This person is an angel. It takes a weight off my mind as insurance have still not confirmed they will cover a business class seat back.
MONDAY 16th March
0000 It’s a new day and we’re all still awake! Time is beginning to blur on this trip.
0015 dying for a wee and ask for a bedpan. dishy nurse informs me about a miraculous contraption called the pure wick, aka DOUCHE CANOE. Yes that’s right; douche canoe. This miraculous contraption sits alongside your vagina and sucks up your piss in real time. I try it and it works! Kind of…
0030 I call insurance as it says in the policy that you have to let them know before you’re admitted to hospital. On hold for 15 mins. Wonder how one is meant to do this if one is in fact unconscious/dying rather than just fucked up a leg. Amazing Helen and Sophie are still here with me helping to negotiate this. What superstars.
0040 woman answers and says ‘I’m sorry this happened to you’ twice in a monotone drawl. She sounds closer to death than I am which would be reassuring if she didn’t go on to inform me that the medical team would have to approve the case before agreeing to pay. And to do that they need the medical notes. Which obviously haven’t been written yet as the op is happening in the morning. Try to convey the nature of this chicken and egg situation and the fact leg is currently in multiple pieces. But the computer says no. Eventually give up.
0050 morphine is dished out and I’m told you need to go up to the ward, despite lack of insurance approval.
0100 Decide that need to prioritise getting leg fixed over insurance madness. Pay 1450 dollars ‘co pay’ to the hospital. Am pushed to a palatial single room complete with giant TV. Sophie heads back to the hotel and Helen sleeps in my room on a recliner bed. What an incredible human!
0430 they wake us up for a pre op CT scan. The donut of doom assesses the damage.
0500 I’m taken for pre op. Helen manages to get through to the insurance and speaks to a more human operator who informs us that yes they generally do pay out for leg fractures. That’s a relief!
0515 dishy surgeon informs me he will be taking the posterior approach, due to new data from the CT scan. I nod and smile.
0645 Get knocked out by a dishy anaesthetist
0845 Wake up full of beans relatively speaking. This propofol stuff is the bomb. I can see what MJ saw in it. Helen and Sophie swap after a live action demo of the Douche Canoe.
1000 crutch training! These ones are the next level of crutch. They sit under your arms and are pretty comfortable. Still a bit dizzy from the anaesthetic but I’m up and about straight away. I have TWO nerve blocks in which are powered by two large black bags of local anaesthetic goodness. As a result leg is completely numb which is good but also a little disorientating.
1400 Back to hotel and conk out
1730 speak to GP in the UK to sort follow up
1800 meeting with Sophie and Helen about SXSW plan. Mine are mainly horizontal but include my panel tomorrow. I’ve also been cleared to fly, but only horizontally, which means… business class baby! We pass this on to the insurance. Happy happy days!
2000 Sophie sorts out my stuff into easily reachable places, so grateful for this incredible person!
2100 avocado for dinner. Avocados here are epic. Resolve to avoid restaurants for remainder of trip.
2200 inject myself with blood thinners and it’s time to sleep. This week has been pretty beyond…what will tomorrow bring?
SUNDAY 15th March
0730 JETLAG
0800 Gym
0845 Breakfast
0930 UK team walking tour. They show us the field where Amy Winehouse played the set which transformed her career.
1015 head off to my first mentor meeting of the day with Tracy Hatfield of Social Snacks. She has some great insight to offer on our marketing strategy.
1120 Robots! Cute robots delivering food and so polite. Not only that there’s a plane in the car park…
1130 head across town to meet Julie Hurwitz from Songbird Creative. Another fascinating discussion on sync.
1200 head across town for UK House networking brunch. Meet a lovely chap from France over a cactus sandwich. Yes they eat cactus here and it is delicious.
1300 interesting talk on human centric AI. The verdict is that it’s a boys club. I dont disagree.
1345 anyone seen my monkey?
1400 first XR experience. I get to ride a space camel! Amazing space seismometer field trip XR realism takes me right back to my Geophysics field trip days at uni. Except that space is much cooler than Scotland. Loving these vibes.
1415 space camel makes me sick as a dog. Frustrated with brain as really want to see where this camel is heading.
1500 Two incredible mentor sessions with Aja Pecknold (Fort William Artist Management) and Jessica Entner (Warner Chappell)
1730 swim! Chat with fascinating professor from Uni of Munich about combating extremism while soaking up the much welcomed coolness.
1830 lovely dinner with the team
2015 decide to leave dinner to write the blog.
2030 writhing in pain on floor of restaurant. Ankle has snapped. Helen gives me a hug. Try to work out if its broken. I’m shivering and feel like am going into shock. But at least I have travel insurance. Rest of patrons look on in sympathy.
2100 finally admit to myself that ankle is not just a sprain. call 911
2110 two amazing EMRs arrive. They splint the ankle and give me a dose of iv fentanyl. This improves things a lot.
2130 I get a ROOFTOP AMBULANCE RIDE. people wave to me in the streets. I feel like the Queen.
2145 Transfer into another ambulance.
2220 Arrive at the hospital. Dishy ortho doc comes and prods my leg. It clicks. We agree it’s probably a little bit broken…
2245 broken not one but TWO bones….but all the staff here are dishy, and all polite and cheerful. Not only that but they are dishing out morphine by the bucket load. It’s almost like I’m at a music festival, or something…
2250 dishy orthopedic doctor arrives. I’m scheduled for surgery in the morning as the fracture is unstable. We have a great chat. I ask him if Lovenox is enoxaparin. He says no. Nurse informs him that it is in fact enoxaparin. We have a good giggle over it and I sign about ten consent forms.
2300 I have seven minutes to eat before fasting pre op. They have salt crackers and honey crackers. They actually taste of salt and honey. Despite there being no honey in them. Wild.
SATURDAY 14th March
0730 JETLAG
0830 COFFEE
0840 Helen arrives beaming because she met an ASTRONAUT in the lift!
0845 Said astronaut appears, the amazing Cady Coleman. Not only is she an astronaut but she plays the flute. And live streamed a Jethro Tull duet FROM SPACE. Check it out here
0850 We need to do a cyborg recorder space duet. When can this happen? SXSW is suddenly worth the jet lag plane hell.
0940 Pass pickup – met by happy people waving yellow flags!
0950 Front of the line for Missionary Misfits!
Fascinating panel spanning design, AI and investment strategy. Speaking to Steve Vassallo after the talk I asked him how he chooses creative tech businesses with a soul to invest in. He says the best businesses have their values imprinted throughout like fractals so he just looks for those.
1130 Sophie and I run via XR experience and Hilton to meet Brandon Biggs from XR Navigation.
1135 I’m at the wrong Hilton
1140 I’m at another wrong Hilton
1141 HOW MANY HILTONS ARE THERE IN AUSTIN FFS??
1142 the right Hilton! Run in just in time.
1145 Have a lovely chat with Brandon about his research on accessible XR maps and its applicability to our work and creative strategy. He also checks out the roborecorder!
1215 discover the 4 dollar SXSW Lunch… one black coffee, one hot water and one meal replacement mushroom soup
1230 take my soup outside and it’s sunny! There is an amazing group of young people throwing some incredible shapes and theyre giving out these cute headscarves!
1255 Back inside for Tom Sachs keynote. Sophie gets free coffee! We’re on a roll
1305 This dude has a sense of humour! He’s showing pics from his phone to a whole ballroom full of people. Essentially deconstructing the conference in real time. Im writing down every other line because it’s so good.
1355 Someone asks him whether he uses humour in his work. Almost asphyxiate laughing.
1400 I have got to meet this human. Buy a book and get in line. Chat to a lovely Virginia based gentleman on the way.
1440 Shake Tom’s hand, give him a Liza Bec pencil and congratulate him on restoring my faith in conferences as performance art. Show him the roborecorder and he digs it! Proud moment. He asks me if it works.
1450 so obviously I play some naked roborecorder. Sans computer.
1455 the queue claps. SXSW has now peaked.
1500 Tom remembers he’s meant to be signing my book. Could talk to this man all day, what a fascinating mind!
1502 queue up at Salon E for Brandon’s panel. It’s one in one out and I’m late
1510 Realise I’m at the wrong Salon E. I’m at the Hilton Downtown Salon E and I should be at Marriott Salon E.
HOW MANY SALON Es ARE THERE IN AUSTIN?! COULDNT THEY USE THE REST OF THE ALPHABET?
1511 Run.
1512 someone asks me to direct them somewhere.I decline on humanitarian grounds.
1515 Someone has lost their llama, can you help? Feel like it is probably at another Hilton.
1516 Make it to the panel, luckily theyre running behind. Super interesting on funding strategies for accessible software and tech. Introduce Sally from Drake Music to Brandon. So wonderful meeting and connecting such amazing people!
1555 run into our wonderful panel to be of next Tuesday 17th 2pm!!! Already vibing
1600 hear Sarah Davanzo speaking about Exotic Thinking, her new book.
1705 head over to UK House for the first time
1730 film networking UK style! Some tasty snacks and cool peeps
1900 it’s time to head back for the piece de résistance: the POOL . the party is getting started on the way!
2000 Wholefoods market snack stop and head back to blog and slippers heaven.
2030 A little bird told me Alanis Morissette is playing 11pm. But every instinct is telling me to nap. Will i push on through the jetlag to make my teenage self scream? You are just gonna have to wait and see…
2300 Walk down to see if can make it into Alanis. The vibe in town is going off! A band in every bar. There are 8 armed police on every junction and a police car in every driveway. Good to see theyre taking security seriously right now. Unfortunately Alanis is full so I amble back to bed.
FRIDAY 13th March
0830 Gym, breakfast then we hit the SHOPS to get clean clothes for the next mammoth plane boggle a thon.
1230 We pack out the super dry changing room and nearly get evicted until they realise we’re actually buying everything…
top tip- super dry boxers are actually pretty sick
1420 we’ re boarding!
1425 oh, no we’re not
1455 we’re boarding!
1500 oh, no we’re not
Captain gives a keep calm and carry on waiting announcement. He sounds game. He gets a standing ovation (because no one has anywhere to sit)
1555 can it be true? We’re finally taking off!! Films lined up and trivial pursuit is on lock. I beat the machine twice in a row before deciding to watch BA’s only French movie in French without subtitles
1655 give up on using brain and hop on over to Fame and Boggle
1700 we get the exact same in flight meal as yesterday! Looks like they spawned it from yesterday’s leftovers
1900 plane appears to be still in air
2200 omg we are past Greenland! Start getting slightly anxious that we’re gonna cross an imaginary line and the electronics blow again like in the Xfiles pilot episode when the aliens arrive and then remember that I watched bugonia yesterday, I think
0200 we land, captain gets another round of applause
0230 passport queue
0300 still in passport queue. America looks really similar to Heathrow actually. Feel like sxsw will just be the inside of grey speckled fluorescent lit hangars serving mashed potato and apple juice on repeat with all the musicians milling about talking shit about where the next good gig supposedly is before never finding it.
0315 seems the passport control knocked off early today.
0330 I dont think they’re ever letting us in. Anyone fancy a jam right here?
0345 if I dont make it, I would like my bones to be made into a harp please. Feel by the end of the queue flesh should be well on the way to total decomposition so feel free to get started ASAP
0400 very dashing officer fingerprints me, but calls me ma’am so i kind of feel like the Queen, but also like I am being arrested. Question: did they fingerprint the Queen when she used to cross the pond? Either way in America so it’s now…
2300! A bit of time travel but no sleep
2320 taxi time. Negotiate a fee of 48 dollars and slump into unconsciousness in the back
2340 arrive at hotel. Fee has miraculously doubled to 85 dollars. I pay it but dont tip. He argues. I point out he already tipped himself and he drives off.
2345 Simone realises they left their phone in the taxi… whoops
0000 I have a total tiredness meltdown and vamoose to bed. In the meantime Simone and Sophie ping the phone until the driver notices and agrees to drive it back. For 65 dollars…
THURSDAY 12th March
0000 How did it get so late? Panic packing-did I forget the swimming costume?
0800 Alarm blaring. Cats are angry. Time to get up!
0830 Ass into taxi with luggage. Solved almost all the political problems in the world chatting with my friendly driver. As a survivor of Ceausescu’s regime he has some excellent insight into today’s chaos!
0930 Scarfed down high protein packed breakfast outside security in case they think I’ve brought a yoghurt bomb. Get told to ‘put the phone away Madam’ . Played spot the muso- lots of instrument cases passing!
1000 Some poor bloke has dropped their passport on the floor at security. Wonder how they’ll find him.
1210 on the aircraft, taking off, woo!
1600 We are turning around!!!
Yup, that’s right, BACK to London! theres an electrical fault on the plane which they “can’t fix in Austin” (?!) and so we have to go back. No answer as to why its safe to fly for 4 hours over the Atlantic with a fault rather than land in eg. Reykjavik. The party atmosphere dims. Hoping no one will miss their showcases.
2030 Finally back in London and the hotel room scrum begins.
2130 Simone narrowly averts Sophie and I being put into the same bedroom 😂 explain to BA it’s not that sort of trip.
2230 finally at the hotel and on the bed! Let’s try again tomorrow….eventually we’ll get to SXSW!
