Dan,

Until recently (as in, around Christmas) I was relying mostly on direct openers. However as with recent rules it's now less practical to travel far (like, London in my case) regularly. I've been spamming my locality somewhat, so I'm rather reluctant to just use the same canned opener and thus re-open the same people several times. Thus, I've had to get creative and more indirect, unless I find the girl genuinely attractive, or if I'm in a great mood. Given that there are less people around anyway (let alone eligible ladies), I just talk to various folk here and there to maintain the vibe. Dates are harder to get due to lockdowns, but are still possible.

I attempted the odd Pub or two back when they were still open last Summer, but usually got asked to knock it off by staff after talking with another table for a few minutes, set of girls or not. Wasn't really worth the effort TBH, so sticking to outdoors.

Z