I'm a bit late in posting this, but I managed to spend a morning speaking French last weekend (just 5 days after my birthday, but as I booked it in before I turned 30 I think it still counts).

Helping a stranger isn't easy.

Over the last 75 days I've thought of a few things or tried to do some acts which I felt were me. I gave directions, let the tall guy next to me on my flight to the Hawkes Bay have the aisle, but all of them felt minor or little. I tried to help the guy in front of me who couldn't pay for the train because someone jammed the coin slot on the ticket machine, but he wouldn't take my $5 note to pay.

Much information, guidance and inspiration for all actions and items on on my 30 Before 30 list has come from the internet. When I saw an article about a random act of kindness by giving flowers I knew it was me.

I love flowers. And particularly getting them. Looking at them brightens my day and makes my soul smile. I feel special and loved and I realized to be able to give that feeling would be great.

I knew that my item for helping a stranger had to be to buy them flowers. I know it's not financial help and certainly won't change their lives, but making someone feel good helps them. It's the little things I think.

So, I spent my lunch hour on my birthday traveling to Auckland hospital. Armed with some bright pink gerbera daisies and the help of a volunteer I had the flowers go to someone who needed some brightness. The weather in Auckland this week has been cold, grey and rainy so I'm hoping these flowers brought a smile and some cheer to someone who needed it.

For those in the US, I also found this charity, Random Acts of Flowers (http://www.randomactsofflowers.org) who does this on a regular basis if you want to support this idea.

One of the items on the list which sparked curiosity in some of my readers was in finding a mentor.

I've had a look at a lot of definitions of a mentor and what they should be or have. Some of the items/descriptions i like are:

-A mentor is someone who inspires you

-A mentor should have experience in the field or specialty in which you work, or aspire to work.
-Choose a mentor who is local or nearby, if possible, and ideally someone in your organization.
-Find a mentor who has a good balance of similarities and differences compared to your strengths and weaknesses.
-Having a mentor doesn’t have to be a formal arrangement.

In my research for this some people told me about their mentors. I realised that this search for me was perhaps more for a professional mentor, rather than someone to guide and advise in my personal and spiritual life.

I've thought a lot about this and realized that with the above criteria, I already have someone who acts as my mentor. There is someone I used to work with this person and we meet regularly for coffee to discuss what's going on (we're still in the same industry), challenges I face both in my career and in how I feel about my job. As it says above, it's not a formal arrangement and it's only upon reflection that I realised this person is my mentor. What they've achieved is great - I really find them to be an inspiration. They have thus far provided me with good advice and asked the right questions when I've talked about my thoughts. It's beneficial to know that they've come from where I have (we started in similar places although years apart) and to know some doubts/thoughts, etc. are normal.

It's funny how you don't quite realize how some people fit into your life and the role they actually play. I feel quite blessed to have and know certain people. If there's any reflection I have had upon turning 30 it's how lucky I am.

Since it's been asked for - my 20 pushups.

As an aside, I actually managed to do another 10 pushups just afterwards. :-)

So one of the earliest ideas of items to put on here was inspired by a gift my Mom gave everyone in the family for Christmas.

She made these books covering her family history and then a separate one for my brother and I also covering our Dad's family history.

Geneology has always kinda interested me. So I thought i'd try to take it a step further. Her books only went back to my great (or in some cases) great great grandparents. I want more in my history, so armed with her Ancestry.com membership and my internet stealth skills I started this project and am pleased to say I managed to get every line back at least 1 generation (and sometimes more) than she did.

Things I've learned while doing this project.

1. I'm related to people from England, Scotland, Ireland (never knew this one!), Canada (never knew this one!), Poland and the Czech Republic (I have a totally new scope for considering myself "a bohemian"!).

2. I got in touch with my Dad's cousin who I have not seen in probably 28 years through randomly finding her also doing geneology research online.

3. I may not actually be related to James Monroe. While growing up one of our fun family facts has always been that we are related to James Monroe the 5th president of the US. While I can make the connections back to the Monroes : George Monroe (my great, great, great grandfather who fought in the Civil War and was in-prisoned several times) and to Corporal Joe Monroe who fought in the American Revolutionary war in in the 1770's his 80's(!) and even all the way back to the first Monroe in the US in my family (William Monroe, who was deported to the US in 1652 for punishment for fighting for the king of England against the Scottish), yet I still can't find the connection to James Monroe. Most of my Monroe family comes from Massachusetts and New Hampshire At least not a direct connection.

And so here is my family tree

On the list was an item to book for high tea. Well I didn't just book before my birthday, I went. As this took part of my weekend I couldn't fit in the morning speaking a foreign language. So that's booked for next weekend. Given I did the high tea I think this is a fair swap.

Anyways the high tea was lovely. Six girls went with me to the Cornwall Park restaurant. We picked a tea from a selection of about dozen. They had a great variety of savories, scones (with cream and jam) and lovely little pastries. It was great.