Now before you get over excited by the title, there is no guarantee that this is entirely true, but it doesn't matter as this wasn't the point

So me and Craigus decided to hit our closest local area, Clapham, take a break from Central London. During weekdays it's pretty empty, so we thought let's give it a try on the weekend. What a difference

We started at O'neills, pretty packed, but it looked like a sausage fest, only a few girl sets, mostly seated or in couples, AA kicked in again so we decided to move on.

Next one up this mojito bar, completely packed and full of sets to be opened. We wonder about for a bit and decide to warm up with a few sets near the door. We notice this 2-set HB7 & HB9 looking a bit bored so I wink to my wing to go for it. HB9 goes outside to make a phone call, so Craigus opens the HB7 one, it was a bit loud so I don't really hear what they're saying, but after 1 min HB9 is coming back. As she passes the phone to her friend I open her with Wow that was a quick call, so is your bf not coming? She looks a bit shocked and claims she was trying to hook her brother with her friend, but it didn't work out. The conversation goes naturally from her, I find out she's Irish, hot blonde one. As the club is getting a bit louder I claim I don't hear what she's saying and she comes closer, at this point she's like shouting in my ear, time to do a bit of kino.

I notice my wing is struggling a bit with his target, who keeps giving eye signals to my target. I start teasing my target about her windows phone, which she seems to be struggling with, joking that we would never get along as I like apple ones. Then she pulls out another phone from her bag so I ask her how many phone she has? 3, she claims, so I say a phone for each bf? She starts laughing, but I continue with if I am to be no 4 do I have to buy you a phone? Conversation goes a bit wildly, we reach the Valentine's day topic, I am not really into it, she keeps telling me girls love it, then all of a sudden she asks me: R U single? Didn't see that coming, so I promptly reply: Why? R U interested? She blushes and tries to change the subject.

At this point my wing loses his target which sits down and joins other friends. So it's just me and my target, things are going well, but her friends keep signaling her and try to pull her down. Surprisingly she resist her friends, but a few min later one of her friends actually takes her away. I see that it's point no point fighting it too much, so we finally exchange names and decide to find my wing and maybe open them later, should have #closed but as it was first set I leave it. big mistake

I join my wing who then tells me: do u know who that was? Martin Whitmarsh's gf, WTF? His target told him that, I find it a bit surprising, the vibe she gave me was that she was single, that guy is like in his 50's and probably married, but still he's the CEO of McLaren's F1 Team.

We open a few more sets in that bar, they don't really hook, but we're just having fun, my wing comments that he finds it harder to open birds much taller than us, he comments that the set we opened earlier mentioned they will move on to the next club. We get out then go for a red bull from the local shop, what a good idea, thanks to Rebus for this one

We move on to the next club, huge and packed. We're not really feeling it on the dance floor as the music is not great, so move on near the bar, open a few sets, but it's too loud, our energy level has gone down a bit so we get blown out mostly.

Time to move on to the 1st floor, more like a discotheque, packed as well. We wonder around for a bit, I notice this HB9 dancing around wildly, you can see a small part of a tattoo on her back. So as make our way through the dance floor, I open her: Girl how far down does you tattoo go? She looks a bit shocked and she shows me it's going all the way down her hip and bum, try to escalate it, but all of a sudden this guy grabs her by the neck and pulls her away giving me the jealous bf look. I smile and we move on cause we don't give a shit.

Again we're not really feeling it on the dance floor, but notice this 2-set HB7-8 sitting in a private area. I say to my wing that we need to open it, he wonders with what, so we go direct, I tell them that they should share the VIP area with us and we have a sit at the table with them. No resistance and we isolate straight away. Turns out they're both Polish, so we start chatting. I notice my wing's target is really into him, my one not so much but I still force myself to have a nice conversation which doesn't go so bad and we both enjoy it by the end of it. My wing #closed his target and tells me he could have k-closed. I didn't get the chance to move with my target, their friends were already dancing and she wasn't in the mood, probably should have taken charge and grab her hand.

So we finally decide to call it a night, on our way to the cloakroom I notice this 2 set, they look quite close so I open them from the side with something stupid: R U girls lesbians? The the killer part, one of them was crying and the other one was hugging her so they both look at me shocked and tell me to f@$% off. I don't give a shit so move on to my wing and we both have a laugh about it. We then notice it's very late and we'll have to catch a night bus. Overall a fun night out and will deffo go back.

Thanks for this FR JohnnyB.

Made a few approaches that night, but I still overthink when opening which is both affecting my state & my confidence, as well as preventing me from approaching in the first place. I've realised that simply chalking things up to "AA" does not quite describe the issues I have at the moment, as they are instead much more complex and layered:

I used to think I was just being shy about approaching, but this isn't my problem at all. Instead, I am over thinking about sets and making excuses for myself:
can't approach them: they are in deep conversation, and won't appreciate me interrupting... can't approach them: they are dancing and my energy level isn't high enough... can't approach them: they are too tall, and I'll feel like a hobbit...
I know that the solution to this problem is to not give a fuck. But to get there, I need to approach more: it's a paradox, but then I knew this game wasn't going to be easy...

Still, had some good success that night, and a real blinder of a time sarging with JohnnyB in Clapham.
I'll try an post a more detailed FR of the night when I have more time. But I'll just add that later that night I exchanged a couple of flirty text messages with the HB8 Polish girl and hope to hook up with her at some point this week: who knows, my original goal of f-closing a HB8 on or around Valentines just might be on the money!

Much love,

Craigus