Day 9, Level 1: Location, ideas, clarity of light, Mars, minding and caring

What a lovely morning to wake up to! I'm in Omaha. 

I opened all the doors and did a bit of cleaning and sorting. The wind got up reasonably quickly, had to close the doors that face north-east. No prob, the ones that face west were as wide open as they've been in some time. No wind from that direction. Summer vibes. Truly!

Onto my laptop for a few hours' work. Made a nice brunch (a "jumbo" poached egg, avocado, tomato on English muffins), and then headed to Matakana to get a few things. OMG are those jumbo eggs jumbo or what!?!? They're massive. 

And then onto Lynn's place. I met Lynn at a creative soiree a few weeks ago and struck up a great connection. She's English, a Virgo, creative, and we're peas in a pod to be quite frank. It was obvious from the get-go. She and her husband recently built a house in the locale and she'd invited me around to take a look and discuss ideas around both travel and cooking. Yes please!

The house is stunning, as is the location ... and the views ... take a look!

Overlooking Sandspit

We chatted and chatted and chatted. Lynn's kitchen is astounding - she designed it to be set up for cooking demos etc. She's a holistic nutritionist. We concocted ideas around this, and travel. It was a great talkfest. The afternoon ran away ...

She's also a fantastic sewer - makes all her own clothes including Melbourne Cup outfits. Her sewing room reminded me of both my mum's sewing room and my studio. Fabulous. She also has a tortoiseshell cat. And a penchant for Europe and great love for Mexico. We discussed many entrepreneurial possiblities ... once Covid is kicked into touch.

Back to Omaha and Brett arrived. The evening light was as beautiful and crystal clear as it's been in a while. The sky as cerulean blue as it can ever be. Little Barrier Islands and its cliffs as defined as you'll ever see. The wind had dropped away completely and it was blissful. The clarity of the evening sky was astounding. Even Brett was raving! 

Taken at 6.50pm

We headed to Rothko restaurant about 5 minutes' drive away. It's excellent. Our waiters were a delightful French couple - they arrived here before Covid to work here for a year. Their visas are being extended for an extra year. I wonder how many other countries are doing that? 

We shared oysters, kingfish and home-made bread. For mains I ordered fish and Brett had salmon. Then we shared blue cheese - enjoyed with a port and special handmade chocolate. Delicious. Been a while since we'd been out for a top notch meal like that. Actually, been a while since we've been out for a meal full-stop. Been a while since Brett has been to Omaha (due to golf in Auckland). A nice night out.

Back in Omaha I looked skywards and observed Mars - so bright and red. It's the closest to Earth that it gets right now, and it won't get this close again until 2035. I got out the binoculars and then the telescope. But I have to say that observing it with the naked eye was just as good. It is very bright. And it shines red. Fab.

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Minding and caring ...

I got some excellent new insight this evening over dinner around these two words - minding and caring. The verbs have slightly different contextual meanings to these words as nouns i.e. mind and care. 

During dinner chat, Brett mentioned that at their partners' meeting (he's a lawyer, for readers who don't know) they have an often-used saying - "I do mind, but I don't care." With emphasis as shown. I spent a moment digesting this, and what it might mean within a legal partnership meeting setting. It is obviously some sort of strategy towards consent. In a vaguely resentful way, I suspect. 

My swift conclusion - "have your own way then". I'm glad I'm not a lawyer or at such meetings!

Brett mentioned this when I was having trouble deciding what to order - as I always do. I've always acknowledged that decision-making is not my strong point - I like too many things and want to give them all a go. Deciding is just way too hard!

Even though I'd come up with my interpretation about the "I do mind, but I don't care" saying, I continued to ponder it further once I'd decided on fish. But it was only later in the evening when it came to dessert that the full insight came to me.

We got the dessert menu and thought we'd share something. Cheesecake, or blue cheese platter? Both sounded great to me. Brett invited me to choose but, in true Sally fashion, I simply couldn't decide. I didn't prefer one over the other. But it appeared obvious to me that Brett did. So I put the ball back in his court and said, quite inadvertently, "I don't mind, you choose". He chose the cheese. Fine by me.

At this point I realised that my own mantra around minding and caring is completely the other way round to their lawyers' meeting i.e. "I do care, but I don't mind." !!!!!

I absolutely care about things, and because I'm flexible and adaptable, I don't mind which way things go, I can handle it. 

In summary - I'd much rather care than mind. But others are the opposite 

To mind: 

• To be distressed, annoyed or worried by something. 
• To regard as important, feel concern about. 

To care:

• To feel interest or concern about.
• To have responsibility for or attention on.

Note that the second definition of Mind is similar to the first one of Care. But they are different. One is about thinking, the other is about feeling. 

My interpretations of the sayings/meanings:

• I do mind but don't care = I'm irritated by it but I'll disregard it. (Easier that way - and I can probably blame someone later). 
• I do care but don't mind = I'm interested in it but not consumed by it. (All ideas are good - and if it's someone else's idea that's good too).

Interesting - same words, but one combo is about complacency and, quite frankly, selfishness; the other is not. 

This is just a first shot at this concept; I may have more insights to come ...!