Tonight was a good night. My goals remain modest, but I know the areas where I need to improve and get better. I made a few small steps tonight, but they were steps in the right direction.

My sticking points were two fold: The first was a tendency to eject prematurely, at the first sign of danger. My second was a tendency to engage girls in conversation primarily about custard. This week I've been reading a bit of Gunwitch. Two of the central planks of Gunwitch's philosophy are to stay in set until you're dragged out kicking and screaming - 'Make the ho say no'. And another is to open conversation with pretty much anything. (There is much more to Gunwitch than this, of course, but go read his stuff to find it out).

And one other thing I wanted to do tonight. You see, I've got this terrible affliction: I really, really care what other people think about me. Everywhere in my life, I am terrifically cautious the second I think something I'm doing might cause offence, or might cause people to dislike me or argue with me. This has translated itself into my Game as well, leading to a hopelessly cautious, self destructively rigid style of game where I have tried to play safe and construct comfort zones just like the custard opener.

So tonight, I wanted to challenge myself to not give a shit what someone thought of me. And the way I was going to do this was to open a set with the following sentence:

Hello girls, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Boris, an alien from the planet cheese. I'm on earth looking for intelligent life. Have you seen any?

So, going into tonight, my goals were no custard, no caring what people thought, and no ejecting before my time.

I met with Chris (Darkstar) and James (sorry man - forgot your pseudonym!) in Hannah's at 9pm, and watched the end of the match. We headed off to Scream, packed with 17 year olds as it always is. Scream is a good place to go early, always busy and lively and usually some sets to work with.

Chris opened a few sets, and was doing well. For my part, AA was kicking in big time. Once or twice I'd spotted a set, but found all sorts of reasons to not open. And I began to get angry with myself. Another 10 minutes later, and Chris spied a seated three set at a table next to the window. He said they looked bored - they were all sat down texting, not really doing a great deal.

It took me a few seconds to get the bottle together to turn and approach. A few seconds where I came dangerously close to making more poor excuses for non-action. But then my feet turned, and I started to walk towards them. The hard part was over now. There was no way I wasn't going to say anything.

I sat down.

CO: Hey, are you girls bored?

Girls: Uhh....?

CO: Cos every time I look over you guys are texting. You're not texting each other are you?

The girls laughed, and I ribbed them a bit before chatting on. I used the same old fluffs I always use - who are you guys out with, where are you from, etc. Such boring conversation, I need to really fucking work on that shit!

So, after a minute or two, conversation began to wane. I turned slightly to get up and leave... But then turned back, and managed to say something else to keep the conversation flowing (fuck knows what I said). Then Chris and James came over and very helpfully winged, and the set took off. I isolated (well - got into a one on one conversation) with one of the girls. Good conversation as well, we joked about the ring she was wearing, we talked about dentistry (she was a dentist), she asked me what I do and I again said I was a professional dolphin shaver. We joked more, and I told her maybe she could be a professional dolphin dentist. It was pretty cool.

I didn't close with this girl. I didn't fancy her a great deal (she said she was a dentist, but she had a gap between her front teeth you could ride a donkey through. Go figure), although maybe I should have pushed for a number close just for the hell of it. Either way, we ejected after 15 minutes or so of conversation which, when I put my back into it, was actually quite good fun!

I was buzzing after this. Absolutely thrilled. We left scream, and as we turned the corner, I saw a two set coming the other way. AA melted, I walked over to them:

Hey girls, I just want to introduce myself. My names Boris. And I'm an alien...

They probably thought I was totally fucking weird. I think one of them said 'You're really weird'. But fuck it - why should I care what they think? Daft really.

The night cooled after that. I should have bounced on into more sets, but I had a few more bouts of AA in Heebie Jeebies. I winged more, but didn't open again. At one point there was a seated two set just crying out to be opened. Chris told me to open them. He even counted to three several times. But my feet remained rooted. I need to beat this AA, and just get on with it. What's the worst that can happen?

However, there are positives. I didn't ask a single girl about custard tonight. I used a good natural opener, and had good natural conversation. These are good things.

And, remember: I'm still only just getting back into my game. In the past, I've compared one's pick up skills to a muscle like any other, and the field to a gym. The more you get to the gym and lift heavier weights, the bigger and stronger that muscle will get. But don't go the gym for a few months, and it hurts a bit the first few times when you start going again.

I will get over this AA. All it needs is a little persistence. And the mood I'm in at the moment, I will persist, and I will fucking succeed!

Onwards, my winged friends, for tonight we flew to freedom!!

..........Like I say, I'm from the Planet Cheese