So you’ve heard all about Thanksgiving day, the Dock’s third birthday, Volunteer Day… but in the wonderful world of Dock, there was plenty more going on over the past month…

…like the arrival of a gang from SusTrans (on two wheels, of course) – one of many groups using the new cycle links to arrive at Dock Cafe:

…or a fancy dinner at the glittering, Christmas-ised Titanic Belfast –

– to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the Pushkin Trust, for which Susan and I got to dress up all fancy and enjoy some stupendous food and very exalted company (it’s not every day that someone says “Oh you must meet the Russian Ambassador!”):

This month we also hosted little Lawrence’s gathering one Sunday afternoon – Dock Cafe’s very first christening party:

And November was the month when we started to really get to know some of the students who frequent Dock Cafe as their living-room-away-from-home.  When hordes of them started arriving in Dock Cafe back at the start of term, to be honest, we were slightly scared! – but as we get to know them, a nicer, funnier, friendlier bunch would be impossible to find.  And I think they’re starting to relax in Dock Cafe too…

This bunch were the first to use the cafe’s new chess board last week – although I did laugh when they confessed that after a while they had moved on from chess to the real heavy stuff: Hangman…
 

And speaking of new additions to the cafe – you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!  Our new heaters were last month’s big change (and they’re fantastic – toasty cosy even on the iciest of days) – but this month an even more long-awaited ‘installation’ has arrived… Watch this space!

Of course the cafe isn’t just popular with locals and students – we had visitors from far-flung places like Nepal, the Shankill Road and Braniel:

…so maybe you’re getting the picture – quite a month!  Community, faith, new faces, unexpected conversations…  In the Dock you can be chilling out with a bunch of students on the comfy sofa one moment, and getting ready to put on a tux for a fancy-shmancy shebang in Titanic Belfast the next.  You can go from roaring with laughter to feeling your heart melt.  You get to see the best of people.  You’re part of building a new community – Life in the Titanic Quarter.