I set out into London today with a simple target: Open with 10 people. I might as well just say now that I didn't even come close. But I've made a tiny bit of progress, so I'm happy with the results of my first day.

The day started off... badly. I left ridiculously late, not getting to my destination (Greenwich) til around 6PM. On a train which I was changing after a single stop, a man gave me his seat. Upon returning it to him as I left, I said thanks and patted his arm. Kino practise. I went for a hobble around (Walking with a crutch after effectively falling off a Ford Transit), and saw a HB9 sitting alone near the river. I walked past twice (Once walking up to the river, then once back) but just couldn't muster up the courage to open. Not letting this bring me down, I carried on wandering around. I actually wound up back at the river, however on passing a third time she was gone (Plus the fact I kept passing would've been obvious)

I decided to head West, deciding that Greenwich wasn't working out. I saw a 2-set waiting for a bus, but by the time I reached them, the bus had arrived. This happened three times. Must walk faster, apparently.

Remembering the exercise of smiling and saying hi to everyone you meet, I decided to give it a shot. Well, I thought about it, at least. There was a ridiculous amount of chavs walking the streets of South London. I didn't want to take my chances in case they took it the wrong way, so I wound up just walking along.

Then, something... unusual happened. Walking past a pub, a fairly drunk 40-year old man called me over. I figured any conversation is a conversation, so I went up to speak to him. He had a slight Scottish accent, which mixed with the slurring words meant I could hardly understand what he was saying. He offered to buy me a drink, which I accepted. An old woman started drunkenly going on about a fight she had that day, and some conflict with her husband/boyfriend/tenant/whatever. When the person who called me over returned with the drink, we had a friendly chat, where he made it clear that he was into me (So you've never had a cock in you before? Are you sure you don't want to try?). I politely turned him down, and carried on my walk. (Another thing, when they asked where I was from, I just said the county. A woman started talking about how she used to live there, and gave my hometown, as well as a perfect description of a part of town not 10 minutes away from where I live, roadnames and all. Freaky.

SO I carried on walking, justifying my inability to open with the fact there was nobody to open. I've never seen London so empty.

I got to Tower Bridge, one of my favourite places in the city. A woman walked past me, so I asked for directions to Liverpool St. Station (The way home). I figured asking for directions was a bad opener, but at this point I didn't care. She turned out to be a lot older than I was expecting and not very fluent in English, so I thanked here, and carried on. I stopped by the side of the bridge to marvel at the sights. There were a lot of tourists, but I didn't feel comfortable opening with that many people around. At one point a middle aged woman set up a camera tripod next to me, so I said "I wouldn't like to be carrying that around all day", but she didn't even acknowledge the fact I spoke. Probably another tourist.

Anyway, I carried on towards the station, unable to talk to anyone. At one point I had to ask a guy for directions, and that was the most conversation except for the Pub I'd had all day. I finally got to the station, completely defeated, failed to open even more potential groups, gave up and got on the train.

Two things before I carry on. Firstly, today was a rare occasion where I wasn't listening to my iPod. Not listening to music when I'm travelling drives me insane. Secondly, when I'm bored I'm active.

So there I was, twirling my crutch on the train. An Asian HB6 was a few seats away and to the right, so I was in clear view. I noticed her look over a few times, so I figured I'd try to open. After a lot of working up courage I got up and walked straight past her, planning to talk over my shoulder. The train stopped and she got off. Giving up on this carriage, I got out and moved to the next. 4 stops til I was home. Not long left.

I sat down, and in the seats in front of me was a 2 set. A girl facing away from me that looked like a HB8 from behind, and an average girl. For some reason there was a girder sticking up in the place of the seat to the right of the HB8. I decided I'd lean forward to the right of the girder and open, forcing the HB to work to get into the conversation.

After some more aimless twirling and working myself up, I finally did it. I leant over the chair, and prepared to meet my doom.

"Hey, mind if I ask your opinion on something? If you could go anywhere for your 21st birthday, where would you go?"

The stage was set. A friend of mine does have a birthday next month, although he's going to be 20, not 21. My trip to London was now for planning a birthday.

The average girl (Now referred to as Girl2) looked surprised to be engaged in conversation, just as I expected. However, she did respond, which I wasn't expecting.

Girl2: "Uhh, it's a bit early to say... Cyprus?"

A bit early to say. Warning lights went off, but I carried on anyway. But I couldn't really transition from Cyprus, as I've never really travelled.

"OK, how about somewhere in London?"

After a moments though, the HB8 leaned in and suggested clubbing. I can't actually remember what happened immediately after, but it ended up with me not knowing what to say, and slinking back into my chair.

A few moments later, the HB8 chimed in again.

"How about Amsterdam?"

I was shocked. Not only had she re-initiated conversation, but she had chosen the place I had wanted to go for years and was planning to visit in November.

"That would be great, can't really get down there easily though" "It's £39 return by coach, I'm hoping to go there for my 18th"

18th. She was 17. Oops. That really didn't help my nerves. I tried to get back onto the subject, btu my mind was all over the place.

"If you're going abroad you've gotta go by plane though, it's the only way" "Yeah, true..." "Or you could go by boat, see what you can bring back" "Uhh... yeah..."

Never before in my life have I hated knowing so many dealers as much as this. I still don't know why I said it. I guess the majority of talks I've had about Amsterdam have inevitably wound up as discussions of smuggling.

Luckily, the girls had to get off at the next stop. As they were leaving I called out "Have a nice birthday", she responded with "You too".

It was a failure, sure, but it was also a success. I had opened. It took all day, but I had opened.

I got to my station, tried to open the door, realised I was trying to open the wrong side, and got off. As I was walking past the front of the train, the driver stepped out. With a stupid grin I said "Excellent journey my good man!" The driver laughed, thanked me, and said see ya.

Overall it was a failure. But I've made progress, and that's what matters.

If anyone has any suggestions for where I went wrong, how I can build confidence, etc, I would love to hear them.

TL;DR: Got a free drink off a 40yo homo, failed to open anyone but jailbait on the way home, cocked it up anyway. Had a great day!