When I first started weblogging a few people I know reacted quite aversely (and that's absolutely reasonable IMHO) to being mentioned or photographed online. I didn't understand it at the time, but now Flickr is, to be quite frank, starting to scare me; for similar reasons, I suspect. Let me explain.

Last week I was up visiting a company we're working with in London. I took a photo of the office and posted it to my Flickr, and a day later had a "hello" from Celia, who it turns out I'd photographed. This week I was glancing at Mr Jones on Flickr and I see he's having dinner with Celia, Chris and Jess (who we've worked for in the past). And tonight Chris is out and about with (amongst others) Pete, another previous FP collaborator and local Brighton bod. Any second now, Kevin Bacon will show up and I win a cuddly toy or something.

Let's not mention the constant stream of FoodPix....

I feel almost guilty - like a stalker, getting these intimate views into the everyday lives of people, some of whom I know, some I'm yet to know. And at the same time it's absolutely compelling.

It was Maria's birthday today, so after a nice solid and well-attended class we repaired to the Walmer Castle for "theory practice", the dishing out of gifts and the cake - a fantastic creation which Steve had arranged from Chockywockydoodah.

I was mildly surprised that you can walk into an English pub, ask the bar staff for "a really big, really sharp knife", and get what you're after.

Had to dash off earlier than I would've liked... back to the office to get a few bits and pieces out of the way. I had to turn down an opportunity for some work today. I'm really annoyed about it - it's not something I've ever had to do before, and it's absolutely gutting (the work sounded quite interesting and was for a good client we've worked for in the past). Hopefully our current recruitment drive will mean this doesn't happen again.