People Watching - Rude or Reality?

Come on we all do it! And alot of us love it - just sitting in a cafe, on a train, in a bar or on the beach watching the world go by and with it the people in it. Some of them inspire us, others make us envious, some make us cringe and some make us remember we dont have it so bad ourselves.

I am fascinated by others sense of style, poise and charisma - not so much to capture it on film for recongition but for personal inspiration. But then I wonder how does one properly people watch? I have family members - names for their own protection will be omitted - who actually turn around a follow the person they are observing. Surely the idea of observing is to be done subtly and not to be let the other person feel watching or worse stared at.

I once was on a girly weekend out in London with my cousin - who is a slender, tall, capivating - yet I am not jealous. As we went shopping down the Kings Road we caught the bus to save our soles (shoes of course) only to have a mother and daughter so intently stare at my cousin that she felt awkward unsure of herself. I being the outspoken, opinated person I am had to comment - my best comment was : 'My mother always told me not to stare, apparently yours didnt'. I know very clever right. But it made me angry - no matter what we personally think of another person's hair, shoes, handbag etc it should never be our intent to stare and make someone else feel uncomfortable. So at risk of sounding silly I do tell people if I think they have a particularly lovely handbag that I cant help but stare at (envy is tricky) something.

So please if you do stare not a problem but be gracious and acknowlegde it ...