Saturday afternoon

Today I was in Reading in Berkshire on my way to London where I am working at the moment. Looking for some "day game".

John Lewis
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I started off in John Lewis department store. Formerly known as "Heelases" it is a fairly stuffy place, and I was not surprised to find the only single women in there were the staff serving. While I don't in principle have a problem trying to chat up shop staff I am unsure how much of a guide they will be in terms of learning. After all they are paid to be nice to people, so I won't know whether I am succeeding...
It was all older people and snobby couples in there, so I left.

The Oracle shopping centre
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I sat down in a cafe there, next to a mean looking woman who was on her own and looked as if she could kill me with one bite.
I didn't dare approach.

Around 5 yards was a girl of around 16. Legal in the United Kingdom (just) but of course I didn't know for sure what her age was. Carrying a load of shopping.
I don't know how to approach her - I can't just shout across the floor can I? And what do I say? (presumably some joke about the large volume of shopping).
Then she starts chatting to the cleaning lady. How did that happen?

Her mother arrived, and they both left.
And as I type the dragon woman has gone too...


On the train to London
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Was standing in the interconnect between two carriages as there were no free seats. Playing chess on my mobile phone. A 30-something spanish girl was there with a large suitcase, and I said "Are you leaving us"? She smiled and said yes she was going back to Spain.
I asked her more about what she was doing in Spain, and she said that she was going back to see family, but that she worked as a spanish teacher in Somerset. I think I got to the hook point with her because I introduced myself as Micky, and she reciprocated with her name, and asked some questions of me.
She said she was from a town to the North-West of Spain, and I asked whether it was anywhere near the port town of Bilbao. She said it was further west. So if Bilbao is black's queen, then your town would be the bishop, I said, referring to the game of chess I was working on.

I asked her what her interests were, and she replied going back to spain, but that she worked as a spanish teacher in the UK. Hardly an answer to my question, but never mind. I started coming out with some guff about it must be a really enriching and enhancing experience to be able to impart the gift of foreign language speech to others (page 116), and I think she responded slightly positively to this. But I detected a little hostility, but I can't place why. Maybe she was married? (she had that "feel" about her).
In any case I gave her my business card and suggested that it might be nice to meet up for a drink at some point when she returned from Spain. But she replied that she didn't have time at the moment as she was going straight to Stansted airport.
I detected more hostility, so decided that she had become a little flustered, and I left.
Looking at page 157 I can see what I did wrong here; I tried to ask for a date in a way that did not flow naturally from the previous conversation.
But I don't think there is much I could have done here, because she didn't seem too interested, and the train was rapidly approaching Paddington, and I had some stuff on the shelf in the next carriage I needed to rescue.

In conclusion today has not been a "disaster" in that I got a conversation with a woman on the train. But cruising the shopping centres on a Saturday afternoon is rubbish because there are no single girls there; it's all families and couples.