Awesome field report MB, that thing about the Man Horn cracked me up! Reminds me of The Thick of It, where Ollie gets dumped and whatsisface from the Opposition says "It'll be like Lord of the Rings - I will be Aragorn the noble king, and you can be Boromir - your horn is broken and will be blown no more". Top stuff.

It's wicked you're getting into natural openings. It really is the way forward, and you'll find you come on in leaps and bounds in the next few weeks. Don't worry about not having a natural route for the conversation to take - you'll find you start to feel comfortable talking about anything, and the girl will naturally follow your strong lead. If you want a starting point, ask an open-ended question:

"Are you a student?" (this is my favourite)
"What do you do?"
"What's your favourite flavour of crisp? I like prawn cocktail"
"What's your favourite place to go on holiday?"
"I want to know about you - where are you from?"

Obviously, some are better than others but you get the idea. From here a conversation is easy as pie.

The energy level thing is big as well. That thing you said about your excitement being contageous? Spot on! It really fucking is. And what's more, those lasses on the dancefloor seeing you having an awesome time in the "warm end of the pool" are going to want in on that. The fact that you were out with your mates and having an amazing night regardless of chick attention will have done you loads of favours too.

I'm in a similar situation with escalating. I, too, tend to err on the side of being social rather than being seductive and it works against me. I'm re-reading Juggler at the moment, and he's got some cool tips to get things heated up. Things like suggesting that you both do something really hot then immediately withdrawing the offer:

"You know what we should do? Go back to mine and lick chocolate sauce off each other. Oh actually, I just ran out. Never mind"

The idea is, even if she rejects the idea (which she almost certainly will), she will still be thinking about dirty shit you could get up to and this will turn her on. Other key things to do are, like Kowalski said, plenty of touching (put your arm around her waist as you go to talk to her, hold her hand as you isolate her etc...) and some statements of interest:

"You're sexy, I like that"
"You look stunning"

I find it's best to do this as if you're talking about the weather or the fact that your drink has too much ice in it. If you do it to get a reaction from her, she'll know and won't bite.

Dude, I can't wait to get back to Bristol. We are so hitting that town and its honeys! The good news is I just passed a mock driving test and the real thing is on monday, so fingers crossed I'll be down soon!