Firstly, apologies and thanks to CO for the thread title mimicry (sincerest form of flattery mate... and possibly indicative of a lack of creativity and imagination on my part)!

Secondly, I'm very new to this, only posted a couple of times but I hope to post more and more as I gain experience. Please see my introduction in that sub forum for my back story if you're interested.

And so it begins.

I went out last night with CO for my second sarging session, which he has already written up in his FR. I am going to post my own thoughts and reflections on my experiences, in the hope that this will become like a journal or diary. Please feel free to make comments and criticisms, post advice or ideas, and perhaps my memoirs may even help some people too.

I had been out before with CO but we were in a larger group and this time it was just me and him. We met at about 10pm and went around a few bars and pubs to see what we could open.

I only had one objective, which was to open some sets, speak to some randoms and continue addressing my AA. I don't want to try and run before I can walk, CO said to me 'babysteps' - and he's absolutely right. On the whole, I was pleased with how things panned out.

I approached a seated three set, with a really basic and simple question - "where's good to go on a Tuesday night". Nothing too complicated! I managed to discuss the relative merits of various venues for a few minutes and then promptly ejected. I was chuffed with this, because I had previously only 'opened' a single girl waiting at the bar and I felt my body language was congruent during the interaction. I tried to engage all of the girls who I was talking to, and was quite smiley and it just seemed alright. I was happy with the vibe - nothing contrived or weird about it. It made me think - this ain't so bad after all.

I found another single girl by the bar in Hannah's later on (I prey on them... they're easy for newbies like myself) and used a situational opener, much like the one that CO used on the 4 set. "Hey how's it going, did you see all those people wearing suits and tuxes earlier - what was all that about?". Didn't get much of a response but it was another random I went and spoke to, which is something I never normally do. Challenging my reality, one (baby)step at a time. I could have done a bit better with this one, she misheard me at first and I instinctively leaned in to repeat myself. I need to work on my projection a bit.

The highlight of the night for me was when CO opened the 4 set and I winged. Well, I say winged, I just went over there and isolated one of them, but it seemed like CO had kind of isolated his target so it was alright (the other 2 from the set seemed to be conversing amongst themselves). I had never winged before, and I don't know how I would go about winging for my buddy if he had opened a large set and I had to remove a number of girls to leave him alone with his target. If that makes sense.

Anyway, I had a really good yap with the girl from the 4 set. I had also had a really good chat with a non-approached girl the week before too (another kind-of winged situation), and this was heartening. There is nothing overly defective with my conversational abilities, I thought I was getting IOIs on both occasions. I felt I could have number closed the girl from the 4 set. She seemed disappointed when her friends told her it was time to go. I can move on to that in coming weeks.

All these concepts like kino, disqualifying, value demonstration, etc were just not on my radar last night. It was all about the approach. CO and I had some really constructive chats about opening and how we wanted our openings to be congruent with our general game approach. We don't like the idea of becoming too reliant on opinion openers, as it seems weird to try and transition from that point. I was really taken with Juggler's concept of the 'Floppsy' - i.e. using a situational pivot if you will to initiate an approach. Obviously you have to get that pivot in the first place, but I reckon there are things happening around us all the time that we just don't notice, ripe for using in this context. I'm going to try and improve my social acuity so I notice these things more and, most importantly, act on them.

Couple of examples. At one point we were in Hannah's and this girl approached the bar in what can only be described as a 'cantering' fashion right in front of us. That just seemed ripe for a comment. Then later in another place, one of the girls of a 2 set waiting at the bar managed to eject the contents of her bag all over the floor. Just a cheeky remark said with a smile could initiate a natural and humorous approach.

This is turning into a bit of a ramble, so I will draw things to a close, but CO and I are hopefully going to go out fairly regularly and keep plugging away at this. It was really good and I would recommend anyone out there who is reading loads of material but short on in-field experience to get involved. It helps to have a really good buddy - if it wasn't for CO I would still be nowhere - so cheers mate

Objectives before night:

1. Approach more randoms, specifically an actual set comprising more than one female.
2. Not look like a total dick. Awareness of body language, voice projection and intonation etc.

Positives:

1. Felt that I met my objectives.
2. Really good chat with last girl in Hannah's.
3. First time winging, seemed to go fine.
4. I enjoyed it. I don't want sarging to be a chore, and it genuinely wasn't. Again, credit must go to CO for this.

Negatives

1. I feel that, with hindsight, I could have opened more.
2. CO on a couple of occasions (as he mentioned in his FR) went up to two sets as we were wandering around different locations. During these interactions I did not know what to say or how to contribute.

Objectives to take forward:

1. More approaches. Next time I go out I want to speak to at least 5 different girls, with at least 3 of them being in sets before my approach.
2. Attempt to transition from whatever opening I use to a wider conversation.
3. Following on from 2... if I can transition and start a decent chat, I want to go kino, even if it's only a little!

Blimey that was a lot longer than I envisaged at the start. I don't expect all of my FRs will be so... verbose!

Cheers for reading.