Squadron Leader At Ladies Day

Yesterday I attended Ladies Day at a local racecourse for a friend's 30th birthday celebration. This was always going to prove a big test for me, as I would be going along on my own and would only know one person. Things didn't start off too well - I met up with my friend and his other friends on the train and said hi to him. But the seating positions meant that I had to sit down on the next row of seats back. I had planned to go in there and make an immediate impact, not to sit there and be un-noticed.

We had about an hour's train ride before we arrived at the racecourse and I had planned to use that hour to establish myself as one of the leaders of the group - not an easy task considering I didn't know anyone. So, I realised pretty quickly that I had to make a move. I spotted that there was actually an extra seat with the main members of the group. So, having introduced myself to the two people sitting opposite me and across from me, I made my move...

My way in to that group was with the birthday card that I had brought with me for my friend. I sat down, stretched across and said "now that you've finished studying the Racing Post, here's another challenge for you". Whilst he was opening that, I said "well, X isn't very good at introductions so I guess I'll have to do it myself... I'm Squadron Leader Y". I introduced myself to everyone there, making sure to listen to their names. This was another of my planned big challenges of the day - I'm normally useless at remembering names. But in reading Dale Carnegie's book 'How To Win Friends And Influence People' it says about how much of an impression you can make by just remembering and saying someone's name when you talk to them. So I vowed to do it. That day, I met about 20 new people and I remembered EVERY name!

When I initially sat down, I could tell that people looked at me as if to say "errr... who are you". Within a few minutes it was all relaxed again, and I had established myself. I took my friend's Racing Post off him and started to look at the form, asking the others who they were intending to bet on and making funny comments about it all. By the end of the journey, everyone was comfortable with me and people were calling me Squadron Leader...

So, why Squadron Leader? Well, I made a joke that when I booked my ticket online, there were options for title ranging from Mr, Mrs, Miss to Right Honorable, Field Officer and Squadron Leader. So, on the Facebook page for the event I joked that I had booked under the title Squadron Leader. On the day, it was my friend (whose birthday it was) who introduced Squadron Leader back into the conversation and it stuck.

We arrived at the racecourse and more of my friend's friends turned up. This time my friend introduced me to them (as Squadron Leader), so I had no need to do it myself. Thankfully, most of the new arrivals were female. On the train there were twelve of us and nine were male. The three women were all attached to the other men (including one cute red-headed girl, who got gradually drunker during the day and who I had a lot of laughs with). These new arrivals, arriving about an hour after we had got there, had never been to a racecourse before - neither had I.

I had made it a task of mine to learn as much as I could about the betting process - what bets are possible, where you go to place bets for different things, etc. That basically involved following my friend around (who was very enthusiastic about it) and then learning as we went. I asked questions about the form guides and studied what things meant and how to spot whether a horse would do well or not. I would use these things to my advantage in a really big way...

After the first couple of races I got talking to a couple of girls - friends of my friend, who had arrived a bit later than us, including one that I thought was lovely. She didn't know about what to do to place a bet, so I started talking to them both and told them both to follow me. I showed them which horses were in the race, told them how to bet, took them along to one of the betting places and advised them on which horses I thought would do well.

I really looked like I knew exactly what I was doing - my confidence and energy was flowing. My advice worked too - the horses were either winning or coming in the top three (on an each way bet) and the girls were winning. They couldn't believe that it was the first time I had been to a racecourse and you could see the delight and smiles on their faces when the horses romped home. I, too, was winning with my bets, but that didn't bother me. I was just really enjoying their company and seeing their faces when they won. I then took them along to collect their winnings and spent quite a lot of time with them.

At the end of the racing day, the two girls (who were both really nice) had to drive back home. The rest of the main group went back to a pub back in my friend's home town. There we sat and reminisced. I sat there, as one of the leaders of the group, chatting and having laughs with them all. It was as if I had been friends with them all for ages.

My three challenges of the day had been completed. Firstly, to get in with the main group and be a leader and be involved in everything - not someone who was just hanging around being ignored. Secondly, to remember everyone's name - this took concentration at first, but I did it. I even remembered the names of a few random people that we met there. Thirdly, I challenged myself not to drink AT ALL during the day and that worked really well for me - I felt relaxed and 100% alert and by the end of the day I didn't feel at all tired.

All in all, a great day, and proof positive that my confidence level is improving and that, once people get to know me, they like me. I've also gained a new group of friends and we have said that we will meet up again soon - we all got on really well. I needed a boost after the last couple of weeks and Sunday really gave me that!