Jewel in the Crown

So I meet up with the regulars in town and we head to Jewel where we had a good night the previous week on a Friday. For my money this place is the best venue in the West End, as it has hot chicks, low music volume so you can talk easily and different sections of the bar so you can open different sets. It was busier and not as many hot chicks as the previous week, but still some opportunities. However I was still in recovery mode from the illness to be fair and still not totally up to scratch.

I talk to a couple of girls as a warm up, using the hair opener I think. Then there are two hotter girls that Peter wants to open but he’s still cold so he doesn’t want to do it. I can feel the draw of my legs taking me forward (remember that the first 1000 sets don’t count) and so I go and open them, probably with the same thing, but I don't stay in set.

I can’t quite remember what happens next, but I don’t open for a while and hit the low energy again. Fargo comes up to me and forces me to open a few more sets. We go for geek. We ask questions like “Who’s your favourite Doctor?” “What’s more scary, Daleks or Cybermen?” “Which series of Star Trek is the best?”

Truly, you’d think they are the worst questions to ask for pick up. We get no brush offs and actually have answers to all of them. We don’t bother to give a reason for asking. In a way, it’s a kind of qualification question – we’re asking them to see if they have the right answer. Of course there is no right answer. We’re just making it up on the spot. This is winging, in the sense of winging it. Improvisation is the business. It’s more fun that way. It also allows me to get my surreal sense of humour into the mix, which is becoming a strong point for me and something that I want to work on more.

I think I open a girl seated with a large group of people, with the Star Trek question. She’s into it straight away. Fargo, with his higher energy and deep, perverted love for Deep Space Nine gets stuck in quickly and geeks out in a massive way. She’s a huge geek too (apparently big into Babylon 5) and it’s truly a match made in the stars (geddit?!?!). A few of the larger group wonder who these guys are but she’s into Fargo and when one person talks to her he includes them in the conversation, and there’s no problems. They were too nice (i.e. middle class) to get offensive anyway.

I go back to the other guys and say my farewells as I want to get the last tube home. When I go back to Fargo the group have largely detached themselves and it’s just him and the girl. I go home and have a sleep.

What I learned:

- Don't be ill, and don't smoke before going out (I'm like Sideshow Bob and rakes with that last one... (check out the Cape Feare episode for more details))