Connie's Diary: Launch Day! (Part 1)

Today is the big day, I can’t believe it is here. Getting ready at 5:30 is a sombre and quiet affair, we don’t want to wake the team yet ‘cos they need to sleep for more than 1 hour tonight if the can. I am getting sad vibes from Samuel, and I can feel that he is overwhelmed by his own emotions.

I feel sick, it is little wonder, with the amount of sleep I’ve had. Meds should fix that. We are off to FoxFM this morning for an interview with Matt and the Lovely Jo Stanley. We have been really pumped before our other interviews, but this one brings a sadness with it, today is the last day we will spend with Sam then he will be gone.

I snuck in a bit more shut eye on the way to the station:

 

Was very nervous, yet again, meeting Matt and Jo, this is so amazing, I feel like I am getting to see how Sam has lived since Secret Life now, it’s quite odd really. Because my heart was in my throat, and I was feeling sad about sending Samuel off I didn’t do a great interview, but Matt and Jo came to my rescue, they know how to save someone from going off on a tangent, and they do it well, it’s not an easy job they have, and they do it so well. They were so funny, they gave Samuel a gift – an inflatable doughnut cushion to sit on to relieve his, um, tender areas after a long day on the uni and some cream, I don’t even want to know where that will be applied – hilarious!

We then went over the road to the Paper Shop Deli, on Clarendon Street South Melbourne where we viewed a piece on ‘Love Your Sister’ on ‘The Today Show’ on Channel 9. That was an absolutely amazing experience, but more on that later, you might have to catch up with what happened there on Channel 9 soon.

Then off to Fed Square for Launch.

Looking at the size of Fed Square when we arrived was daunting, it is huge! And we want hundreds of people to be here to kick this thing off, what if they don’t arrive? The boobmobile arrives with caravan in tow, so I have somewhere to do my makeup, thanks to the lovely and talented Kate Radford for doing me up, and hiding the fact that I slept for less than 2 hours last night. We are sitting in the caravan, doing the makeup thing as people start to arrive, I can hear them, and catch a glimpse outside every now and then and the crowd is swelling, awesome.

Then who should come to the door but Molly Meldrum. I first met Molly when I was sick as a child, when he came to the hospital to visit sick kids, and it was so lovely to see him again. 

We had a bit of a chin wag, when my beautiful little boys, Hamilton and Willoughby turn up with my hubby. They venture into the van, wearing their wide brimmed school hats when Molly bails them up, to refashion their hats into akubra style hats, it was very endearing.

Then comes Jennifer Hanson for a quick chat, this is getting to be a bit much, all these amazing people popping in to the boobmobile for a chat, I’m starting to feel a bit overwhelmed and emotionalJ

Then comes Jo Stanley, we met this morning for the Matt and Jo show, what an amazing woman, all these people coming to support us, I am amazed, and very touched but can’t cry, don’t want the makeup to run!

The crowd is building and people keep coming to ask if I’m ready yet ‘cos people are asking to see me, this is so weird, ‘cos Samuel is the famous one, and he is the one riding the unicycle, it feels really odd that people are asking for me!

So my face is on, great job Kate, and I step out of the van. There is a massive cheer from hundreds of people as I step out, and there are a heap of photographers and news cameras waiting for me! I am flabbergasted, I have never seen anything like this in my life! Claudia Karvan, Deb Mailman, Katherine McClements, Totti Goldsmith, Brigitte Duclos, Jennifer Hanson , Jo Stanley and Molly Meldrum and of course, the brother of the year, Samuel Johnson are all there for a photo shoot with the media, with little old me in the middle, how out of place am I?  Willoughby and Hamilton are in the mix, and while Willoughby seems to be taking it all in his stride, little Hammy is a bit overwhelmed by it all, and who can blame him – so am I!

The it is up to the stage, I have had a little bit of time to write my speech, with the sensitive guidance of Em and Sarah Hallam, so I’m all ready, but getting up on stage and looking out at all those people makes me so nervous. The Mornington high school drumming band kick off an amazing drum roll to get things started and it’s all on, there is no backing out now, Love Your Sister is alive and well!

Molly starts things off by giving me a Pink akubra, signed, and giving Samuel a lovely limited edition set of stamps featuring some amazing women who have battled breast Cancer, Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton John, they are very thoughtful gifts, and he brings a tear to my eye when he presents them, then before I know it, it is my turn to speak, I feel weak at the knees and very teary, there is a lump in my throat and although the crowd is very friendly and welcoming, the sheer size of it is frightening to someone like me who is not used to public speaking at all.

I have notes, but it doesn’t really go to plan, I think of other things to say and different ways to say things I had planned on saying, so the notes are pretty much useless to me and I try to wing it. I forget one of our sponsors in my thanks to the sponsors part, and can’t find my notes so I fumble. I wanted to thanks our Breast Friends forever, the major supporters, without whom we really wouldn’t have been able to get this thing on the road, including Jayco, The Bendigo Bank, The Village Agency and Print Design Australia, and I couldn’t think of them all at once and fumbled, so I forgot Print Design Australia. I am so sorry Dion and Di, I am so sorry, please forgive me, you are wonderful and have done so much for us, and I left you out!