I'll keep this one brief. The tiniest of tiny baby steps last night, which is progress.

Was out with my non-PUA mates last night. I've had a problem in the last few weeks with this group of friends. They don't approach girls, have major oneitis issues, and are belittling of my mission to talk to more women I don't know. This has meant, in previous weeks, when I've been out with them I haven't opened any sets myself, possibly partly through fear of what my mates would say.

Last night we were out in town. After a night of getting frustrated (and lacking the bollocks to take action), I finally made a move. I was speaking to one of my housemates, a decent lad. He was complaining that we were just standing in this bar, not talking to anyone. I turned and saw two girls behind me, HB7s.

'You mean talking to girls like them?' I asked. He said yep. 'Ok, lets ask them about custard.'

I turn, choke down my AA (which I still get), and open the set. Good body language, hands expressive, and although I was pretty drunk I thought I explained myself pretty well. It turned out these girls were French, and I had a little banter with them about this.

I turned to bring my mate into the set, but he hadn't followed me in. He'd snuck back into the group of lads we were out with, to watch from the safety of the pack. Fine, but after a few minutes chatting to these girls, one of them said 'I have to go pee' and took the other one with her. It wasn't exactly the best pick up ever - I was drunk and talking shit.

So the girls leave. And what's the first thing that happens? My other mate - who has also been watching the interaction (and who has been most vocal in his mocking of me), comes over and takes the piss, waving two fingers in my face and laughing. But I grinned back, and said 'Fuck me that was fun' - because it was! I got that tremendous fucking rush that comes from opening a set, from talking, even if its shit conversation.

'Why are you so happy?' he asked (literally he asked that, in those exact words! What a twat!). I just told him the truth: 'Because I spoke to girls I've never met before. That's progress - and that was actually really good fun!'

I told him, if he thought it was that easy, that it was his turn to go and speak to someone. But he declined. Fuckin chump.

So, as I said at the beginning, that was a tiny little baby step last night. But that is still progress. I only opened that set. But opening a set with my non-PUA friends around is an important chunk of progress in itself. Little piece by little piece, this jigsaw is fitting into place.

Probs out again tonight. So, lets go!