Monday Night Mayhem

I got out of bed at 4:00pm and I cursed myself for oversleeping. (I had woken up at 4am and had insomnia until about 9:00am - With my day I had planned to venture into town to go shopping in Selfridges and maybe try it on with some girls who worked up there - I also wanted to do a serious session in the gym. Maybe even get a haircut. As it goes - I failed all three of these elementary tasks.

I did however manage to buy a Christmas tree.

Anyhow, in the evening I met up with some work pals and we drove to East London and has a nice curry meal for dinner. After than we headed back and then into the West End to go to some bars and clubs.

I took my pal to a Salsa Club on Charing X road which was quite cool. The place was crowded and had a few nice girls. The problem is that I have not been to Salsa in a while so I am a weenie bit rusty. And these bigger Salsa Clubs (as a opposed to more friendly class-based venues where people go to practice on a regular basis) are quite intimidating if you are out of practise or even if you are just shit, or are ugly/need a haircut.

It takes quite a lot of effort to ask a girl to dance and depending on the venue she can turn you down flat. Let me elaborate:-

In the proper Salsa Clubs where the girls are all super crisp and people are out for a night out - the hit rate (chance she'll say yes) is low. The factors that affect her decision I think are as follows. (of course like most things of this type, since I am a man trying trying to figure out a woman's way of thinking - I am probably utterly wrong)

• How good looking you are.
• How good looking she is.
• How good at Salsa you are.
• How good looking she is.
• How well heeled you are (if you like a tramp - then a no no.)
• How much she is sweating. (most important - because this is an indicator of how much she has been dancing - and she may want to dance with you, but she way just want a rest first.)
• Random Unknown Factor. (there is no way I could ever figure out what this is.)

It is wise to observe her first, to see how good she is and of course to also how many men she turns down.

In the more class based venues the above still applies, but generally people are out for practice and being friendly so the hit rate is much more higher. (Even higher still if you did a class with them too)

Nonetheless, it is quite tough asking a girl to dance - not simply because you risk rejection, but because you then need to dazzle her with your skills. But that is another issue altogether.

Anyhow, I really wasn't in the mood and I am somewhat rusty - also I am in desperate need of a haircut. I did however see a girl who I recognise from another club I used to go to. She was standing behind and was being chatted up by a complete moron who was telling her about his company and all this incredibly boring shit about companys and being a company director...blah blah. Just to put her out of her misery I had to rescue her and whisk her away to the dance floor leaving that poor sap to himself.

Anyhow I quickly got bored so we then went to another bar and I immediately hit it off with the barmaid. She was a very nice girl (a dancer - as you might know I have a soft spot for them) and I contemplated giving her my phone number.

I wrote it down and went as far as returning to the bar to take back my empty glasses. At the last moment I stopped myself however. Not because I was afraid or nervous or anything but I realised I was only really doing it for the sake of doing it - and over her shoulder I noticed the other barmaid staring intently - my spider sense was ringing and it told me not to give my number to the dancer because it was the other girl who was interested. (I had met her very briefly the week before and she definately had the X-Factor to her which I had not really noticed. The dancer was nice, but something... I cannot put my finger on it, something said I shouldn't do it.)

So I did not pass on my number. Instead I will return and try it on with the other barmaid. Maybe even tomorrow.

Who knows.

Anyway, we went off in search of another place towards Covent Garden that was open. We found none. To my eternal shame I ended up in Tiger Tiger... which was FULL of a bunch of corporate whores (nothing new there) but it was some stupid function so there were lots of Hooray Henrys trying to be as obnoxious as possible.

After 10 minutes we left and went home.

It is now 03:34am and I am going to watch Star Wars on DVD now.

I think I will return to that bar tomorrow during the day and see if I can talk to that other barmaid.