Simply Red - Simply Super!

Before I say another word I have to say this – Kevin J Robinson, from Simply Red, has marvellous taste in hats. I know this because at last night's Newmarket gig he was wearing the same hat that I was – which just happens to be today's Hat of the Day. What a coincidence!

But more about that later. What a day it was! England thawed in yesterday's perfect summer weather – I spent part of the morning watching the busy Friday traffic stop for the horses on Bury Road in Newmarket.

Newmarket takes its equine activities very seriously. The horses even have their own footpath! People walk on the outer footpath, right next to the road, while the horses have a parallel inner footpath, safe and sound behind their human shield. I've never seen anything like it. Everywhere you look you see magnificent thoroughbreds strutting, and the half of the population that doesn't have hooves wears riding boots. On a sunny day, with the eye-stabbing green of the parkland and the pale blue of the sky, it's like a Constable painting – so very English...

Thelma and I got glammed up nice and early. My fabulously bling top from Vintage Angel needed a fabulous black hat to set it off, so I chose G Garb 9 instead of my usual, and Thelma bullied me into wearing some disgustingly high heels. I spent the evening extracting the stilettos from the soft ground of the racetrack and moaning about my aching feet. I am never wearing high heels again, no matter what!

Interest in our hats was high (coz of course we looked like glamorous sophisticated international jetsetters, tee hee - it had nothing to do with the fact that we kept telling anybody who would listen that 'Kevin Robinson wears G Garb hats!') and Thelma handed out quite a few business cards.

British reserve went out the window at the gig and we made some new friends. Like Simply Red uber-fans Jamie and Alison. Alison was kind enough to don the Hat of the Day while she and Jamie smiled for the camera.

And Linda (left) and Glen, who kept hoping Mick Hucknell would wander by and sweep them off their feet.

And some friendly bobbies, because of course, being us, we got lost looking for a taxi after the gig, and when I was little I was always told that if I was lost I should Ask a Policeman.

And then there was a lovely group of Poms who wanted to know where we hailed from (apparently we have accents. Figure that out – we thought it was them with the accents!) Seeing as I was born in Pommyland, we have called this photo Poms R Us.

Our taxi driver to and from the concert, coincidentally, was Jason, the husband of our Vintage Angel, Berni... and he ensured we got back to the Bedford Lodge safe and sound after an amazing evening. (Thanks heaps Jason!)

But the highlight of the night was undoubtedly the Simply Red concert, and actually getting to meet the band afterwards. Mick Hucknell graciously autographed a photo that my next door neighbour, Maree, took at the Canberra gig earlier this year, and posed for a photo with Thelma.

Kevin, the man with the hat, was kind and funny and interesting - and he shouted Thelma and I to a drink, so he's our latest hero – oh, and did I mention he has great taste in hats?