I am certainly not as up front in real life as I am on here. Maybe it is the anonymity of the blogs that makes it easier to be outspoken...hell, lets face it, even downright offensive at times. Although having said that, I do consider myself to be ok with meeting new people. I wouldnt say "comfortable", but i am ok , and can appear confident. Although if i meet someone , and am chatting away, and they suddenly say something racist, sexist, or generally offensive to me, I am quite happy to say something like "sorry, I didn't realise you were such an a#$hole, I am going to find someone else to speak to". Yes, I have done that. I do have a tendency to annoy christians though. But I don't mention religion unless they bring it up first, in which case it is open slather right?

Oh...one more thing. I am at my most socially awkward when at a funeral, or being informed of someones death. I just never know what the right thing to say is....something appropriate, but not a cliche. And when someone replies to me something like "well, at least they have gone to a better place", or "she is up there looking down on us" I really do have to bite my tongue!

The one thing that helps in awkward social situations is if you've got enough confidence in yourself to not be bothered if you make a bit of a prat of yourself. So, if you did go up to someone and say "Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?" you've got enough balls for either possible response: "Thunderbolts of lightning, very very frightening" or "OMGWTF?!"

I, for example, would not be bothered Moata, if you started talking to me about your two-tone boobs because I would probably share stories of my own. However, it could be a complete conversational bomb with some people and the difficult part is knowing when you're sinking, and whether to change the subject gracefully or suddenly excuse yourself to the ladies'.

You're right though, it's all about faking it til you make it. I think deep down most people feel some kind of awkward in new social situations, but the ones who appear to be most confident a) have had practice in those situations, and b) are faking it.

A friend's girlfriend is the kind of person advertisers had in mind when they created the Police 'get better work stories' ads.

A nice conversation will be happening among a group of us, and then she will chip in, as though she's about to add something relevant to the discussion. But no, it will be along the lines of, "The other day, this couple came into work asking for a table, and I told them 'You don't have a booking do you? Well, I'm sorry, we don't have any free tables!'"

And that will be the end of the 'story'. Seriously. It's so painful.

A tip that helps me: If you can't be interesting, be interested.

I'm usually pretty comfortable in situations like that... Its part of my job so I sort of have to be :o)

Socially awkward? Just add Aspergers. So, every day.

Best strategy for me seems to be to do more listening than talking and chime in from time to time when I can.

I often have to greet guests for my boss, and if he's running late I have to sit there and make small talk. Soooo awkward when you've covered off the majors.

I would love to be the life of the party, which is fine with my mates and people I know, but random guests at work where I need to maintain some sort of professionalism is a different story!

@ Davo, you you are fine socially as long as you agree with everything varying people think or say?

I agree it isn't that nice to meet people who are indeed racist, homophobic etc, but feel that in a social setting, tolerance makes you the bigger person.

I am all good socially, but I fake it, I prefer smaller gatherings of people I know, but with my work, I find myself in large social gatherings with many varying personalities, I think my strongest point is tolerance, someone can say something I highly disagree with, but I am pretty quick to put things in perspective.

I will say though, I find people who put on those very fake posh accents really difficult to deal with, you know it isn't their natural voice but they insist on using it!

Great blog topic Moata :)

@ Davo#2...

Yeah, I'm not too good with the funeral/dead people/someone's-just-been-diagnosed-with-a-terminal-illness comments either. My gut reaction to sensitive bad news like that is to make light of it, and if I know the person well enough I will attempt to form an appropriate light-hearted joke, obviously not meaning any offense.

Hard if it's someone else though. I just try for a "I'm so sorry to hear that" and a gentle transition into another conversation topic!