Dealing with "ethical issues"

Sipping my extra large latte, still in my dressing gown at 10.30 am, I sat myself in front of the computer screen to get the day somehow started and mull over yesterday's events.

In order to recover some of my lost data since the incident with the MP3 player, last week I summoned my first interviewee for an informal chat over a pint in the pub. This encounter took place yesterday, and indeed I did regain some of the lost facts and figures. The only problem is that one pint lead to another, and five rounds later two of my good colleagues from the university joined myself and my "informant" and we did the pub quiz. It was actually hilariously funny at times - my colleagues referred to the pub quiz sheet as my "questionnaire"... Alas, my colleagues raised their eyebrows as well as their concerns about "ethical issues" over this rather relaxed atmosphere. At that stage, of course, the "interview" was over the evening continued as a "social".

However, as a result, today I have to contend with a moral hangover as well as a more traditional one, a result of rather too many Leffes consumed last night and the blurring of the boundaries of what counts as "research" and after what point does it become utterly unfair for the reserch subject and thus exploitative...