I’m sitting in a field in Hertfordshire, mildly frozen, waiting for the next race to begin. We’ve gone to watch amateur steeple chasing for hunt horses, known as Point -To-Point. These races in the green British countryside run over three miles with around 18 fences to be jumped.

On a fine summer’s day it’s a wonderful activity for all the family to watch and to enjoy a picnic. It’s also excellent value. Today the weather has turned fresher and there’s the odd spot of rain which trickles down my face. There’s a gap of around an hour before the next race begins. I find myself, in between looking after my active 16-month-old daughter (who keeps trying to pull my nose off), people watching. I like to work out which groups people belong to. In many ways I feel there are indeed still stereotypes. There’s an art to people watching. It has to be done long enough to work out a stereotype but without being noticed by the people you are looking at. Years of looking,no doubt as a nosey teenager, have helped me perfect the skill.

I feel something sniffing the bottom my jeans. It’s a boisterous young black Labrador puppy wagging its tail veraciously. The dog is pulled back by its owner, a 20 – something year old who now chats to a group of similar aged girl-friends. I class them as horsey types, with long boots, jodhpurs and body warmers.Some are wearing tweed shirts. I notice too that they all have their hair-tied back and wear white pearl earrings.

My ear is pulled and I spin round to pick up my giggling daughter. It’s probably just as well as staring in one direction is a give away and certainly would not earn any extra points with my wife. I stand up, shaking myself down, but begin to notice pearl earrings being worn by other ladies. I don’t want to sound odd here but when you start noticing something, like pearl earrings or a new type of car, you can’t stop yourself from looking. What did come to my mind, however, was that pearl earrings, especially white pearl earrings, cross the ages. Fashions come and go but peal earrings are a timeless item. I can not think of any items that continue to stand the test of time.

The young horsey ladies are now the other side of the field waiting to place bets I suspect. And it struck me that pearl earrings continue to be popular because they can be worn with any type of outfit. A pearl earring set, I conclude, should form a staple of any lady’s wardrobe. They can and are worn by all sorts of different ages and background. While I’ve been figuring out the stereotypes of groups of people, the one item that I kept noticing, ironically, were pearl earrings which do not fall into any one stereotype. Maybe I should give up putting people into stereotypes.

My ear is pulled, followed by my nose by a little grubby familiar hand. The next race has begun and I get ready to concentrate on the horses and my lively daughter who’s now kissing me. I guess pearl earrings will always be popular even when my little one’s older. She may also one day have a black Labrador puppy too but she’ll need to watch who it sniffs. My thoughts move away from pearl earrings.