Friday 1st April was a big day in the TQ…

If you watched the Day in the Life of 2011 video, you’ll remember that big plans were afoot to celebrate the centenary of the opening of the Thompson Dock (the huge dry dock beside the old Pump House, and famous for being the last place the Titanic stood on dry ground) by lowering people into the dock for the first time in many years.

Alas the forces of nature were arrayed against this plan… Over the last few weeks the gate at the top of the dock (which usually does a pretty good job of holding back the ocean) has sprung a leak – leaving the dock in imminent danger of being underwater – making it a possibly slightly dangerous place to spend April Fools Day!  As a consequence sadly the planned centenary events had to be called off – but, determined not to let the event pass unmarked, some hardy Dock members braved the gales to sing Happy Birthday, eat some celebratory Cream Eggs and Jelly Babies, and generally help the Thompson Dock to feel that someone was making a fuss…

On Saturday it was time to Meet some Neighbours as the second Saturday Brunch swung into action.  (Sorry the pics aren’t great – too busy chatting to faff around with the camera!)  Yet again I just had an utterly fantastic time as a mixture of familiar and new faces from the TQ community joined us for coffee and cookies.   We met some truly brilliant people – some even helped us with the set-up and clear-up of the deckchair cafe, others stayed and chatted when they had long ago gone numb with cold, others shared stories and jokes and insights which made me realise something profound and rather cool:  I really like the people moving into the TQ.  A marvellous bunch and a marvellous brunch.

We even got to introduce two next-door neighbours for the first time! – the 2 gents on the left live right beside each other but hadn’t yet had a chance to meet properly.

We warmed up in the Premier Inn over coffees during a fantastic book group – everyone loved our book of choice this month (Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain) and it was great to share the different ways in which we’d been challenged, surprised and inspired by Merton’s life story.

To finish off the weekend in style – at today’s sun-drenched Dock Walk we had Protestants, Catholics, Americans, Germans, Czechs (as well as a few locals) – talk about living out the Shared Medley!

And to end on a sombre note… it’s been a weekend in which the need to build peace and live out a brighter future in Northern Ireland has been more urgent than ever.  The tragedy in Omagh, with its crushing echo of twenty or thirty years ago, was a sharp reminder of a past that we refuse to revisit.  It was good to see politicians, leaders and communities from across the spectrum react in equal horror – a clear message that we are in a new era and a new day.