20th May 2009, around Covent Garden. It’s a glorious day and I am shitting myself. I’ve just been sitting in a Cafe Nero reading Mystery Method that arrived from Amazon the day before. I’m reading about survival and replication value, indirect openers, and the three second rule.

I’m definitely shitting myself. I stay in the comfy sofa-chair way longer than I need to but finally I rouse myself and put on the PUA Wizard hat. I walk through the market towards Neal Street. Several hot girls go past and I chode out. No way do I have the balls to open a moving target.

HB7 Japanese
I walk into a retro clothes shop. I really like Japanese girls, more so than any others. I’ve also got this lingering chode-mind that tells me I should focus on Japanese because I speak Japanese (used to live there) and thus she’d be impressed. Gonna need a prop…. I pick up a shirt, take a deep breath and walk over to her.

Krauser: Hey. Do you think this shirt suits me?
HB7: *smiles, looks* It’s nice

I keep talking. Can’t remember what but my heart is pounding and my hands seem to shake. I’m actually talking to a hot girl I just opened! I manage to talk a few minutes and she’s not running away. I do some clumsy kino by using her hand to draw a map of Kichijoji (a sub-region of Tokyo) when it turns out we both know the area. Uh-oh chode alert – I try way too hard for report. I’m totally uncalibrated and ask her to go for coffee. She politely refuses. I eject.

I am so fucking happy! Totally stoked. I just approached a random girl and didn’t get destroyed.

So obviously I have to find another retro shop. I wander into Rockit. There’s an English HB6 so I blunder in with the same opener. I get a polite answer, brief small talk but she doesn’t hook. Whatever, I’m on a roll!

Now I’m really excited. Hey, do you think I could approach a girl in a different type of shop? Come on Dixons, let’s see what you have. I see an American HB7 looking at some cameras over the counter. I walk up from behind.

Krauser: What you thinking of buying?
HB7: *total surprise* Um, that one.

Total failure. At first she looked at me like I’m a mugger, and then as some low-value uncalibrated tool. And she was right. So I exit and walk down towards Embankment. An HB8 Malaysian is coming up the street towards me. I step across a bit and gesture.

Krauser: Are you someone I should get to know?
HB8: *total shock* Uh *keeps walking*

Yes, I write this several months later and I’m cringing at the chode-ishness of the openers. Quick debrief on the HB8 is I came over threatening by the full-on body language, didn’t smile, didn’t say hi, and gave her no reason to invest enough to answer such a qualifier. But whatever, I managed to solo sarge and do four openers.

I’ve started.