Well, Operation Cheer-The-Heck-Up, Brisbane was a complete success!

Felicity & I met up at Riverside Centre (the centre of Suits-ville in Brisbane) and proceeded to give away over 100 stems of carnations and chrysanthemums to complete strangers. Random acts of kindness. Spreading some smiles. Whatever you want to call it, Felicity & I had a very successful Operation Nice.

And this is how it came about. Quite some time ago, I came across the wonderful website created by possibly the world's NICEST person, Melissa. AND of course, her website is called Operation Nice. Melissa lives far, far away in a land called Niceville. No, I'm kidding, she lives in the United States, in Philly, and I'll be honest, when I think of Philadelphia and the US of A, the words NICE and GENEROUS and GIVING don't readily spring to mind. But hey, what do I know? My next thought (after, wow, Melissa has some funky-ass taste in spectacles... seriously, they are hot!) was, if she can spread NICEness in the mean old United States, surely I can do the same in the loveliest city in the world. Yep, Brisbane.

I sussed out the perfect partner-in-crime for the task, my as-yet-inter-webby-only-friend, Felicity. We chatted about a few ideas regarding places, times etc, and decided that today would be the day. The preparations went swimmingly. I found a lovely, and I mean lovely flower wholesaler, and when I discussed what I was needing, he suggested the perfect flowers. Long-stemmed carnations, which wouldn't wilt too much without water, and which come in a dazzling array of colours. I designed (hang on, let's just say made, I am categorically NOT a designer) some tags, bought some uber-cheap ribbon (thanks Big W!) and we were ready!

At this point, I'd like to send a huge shout-out and thank you to my flower-man. Yesterday when he brought the flowers to me, he refused to take any money and made me promise to keep him anonymous. But he loved the idea of Operation Nice, and he gave me over $60 worth of lovely fresh flowers for FREE, so thanks Steve. You are truly a nice person.

Lunchtime today, Felicity and I met, for the first time, and yay for that! I'm so glad we finally met, we've been friends for a while now, and she's really a sweet person. So hey Felicity, we've met! (Hope you are as happy as I am about it!)

Although I was super-prepared, and had  my bucket of flowers, beribboned and cheery, and had my phone, camera etc with me. I was completely useless, and took no photos. Big shame. We looked cute. No tootin' of my own horn, in all seriousness, we looked cute! We were both wearing electric blue, and we were so happy and feeling good about what we were doing, that you couldn't wipe the smile off our faces!

A few sturdy souls rejected us, and a few more questioned our motives, but in general, people were really appreciative about the idea. Some sweet old business men said they were going to take the flowers back to the office and give them to their receptionist - which was the highlight of the excursion for me. For someone else to give something, just to see the recipient smile... job done.

So... in lieu of photos from our flower-giving lunchtime stroll... here is what it probably looked like. In bits and pieces. You'll get the idea.

Here is me...

  
Here is Felicity...

  

Here are flowers...

  

Here are the tags...

    

And here is the Riverside Centre... which is not a bad place to spend a few hours in the sunshine, right by the water...

  

And that arduous task of uploading random photos would have been much more enjoyable if they were actually photos of the fun that was our little Operation Nice. Ahhh, oh well... next time!

Yes, there will be a next time. So, if you'd like to join in, or do your own NICE thing, let me know, I'd love to hear about it.

**** Update ****

Awwww, I just got an email from a guy who was the recipient of a flower today. He wanted to thank us for such a selfless and sweet gesture, and also to let us know that he'd gone back to his office after lunch, feeling a lot happier and he re-gifted the flower to a stranger in the elevator in his building! That's the spirit!

Thanks, keep your Operation NICE updates and thoughts coming in!