Oops, I nearly forgot to post details of when and where Dock-World springs into life again after Christmas…

DOCK WALKS continue as normal throughout Dec and Jan – so there will be a wintry, blustery, bracing walk every Sunday at 3:33 (including tomorrow – 30th Dec) – wrap up warm and see you there!   As added incentive, we always find somewhere cosy to stop for coffees or hot chocolates on winter walks – and we get to see beautiful winter sunsets like this, taken at the Thompson Dock last Sunday:

We’re also continuing the tradition of Dock Walking on New Year’s Day – meeting at 3:33 to walk the length of the TQ, looking back with thanksgiving over 2012 on the road out, and looking forward with hope into 2013 on the road back.  It’s a great way to start the new year – fresh air, good friends, great chat, and space to get your head around the new year…

And DOCK CAFE is re-opening on Thursday for a new year of Life in the Titanic Quarter… incredible to think that this time last year, the cafe wasn’t even a twinkle in our eye… what surprises and blessings are waiting for us this year?

…because there is good news in Belfast in December 2012.  And it will prevail.

For more good news from Belfast in 2012, click here

While I am the world’s most stubbornly, hopelessly optimistic person*, even I am forced to admit that the weather outside is indeed frightful – and so A Titanic Christmas will take place according to Plan B – gathering in the Odyssey Pavilion from 5pm onwards tonight.

Everything else will still go according to the original plan – we’ll still have hot fruit punch, plentiful pizza and lots of Christmas goodies; Santa is busy figuring out a way to abseil down from the high gantries in the roof of the Odyssey, and we’ll still gather by candlelight in a darkened Odyssey Pavilion to sing carols and celebrate Christmas as the Titanic Quarter community.  (of all our bright ideas, we’ll only abandon the ‘blazing braziers’ – we’ll try to avoid burning down the house!)

And Life in the Titanic Quarter is still continuing through the dark wet days of winter – a few snapshots of Dock Cafe today as customers shelter from the cold, enjoy steaming mugs of tea and lovely hot potato & broccoli soup, catch up with friends, or with work, or with the sports results, stretching out by the fire as the rain runs down the windows… Cosy, eh?!

So see you later – it takes more than a few rain clouds to dampen our spirits in The Dock…

(*I still do believe that it will stop raining, and probably in time for 5pm, but we can’t set up the piano and the PA system in the rain – so hey ho!)

(** UPDATE:  Ok so it didn’t stop raining.  In fact two days later it’s still raining.  But the world is still a beautiful place.)

A massive welcome to one and all to A Titanic Christmas on Thursday at 5pm:

Just to whet your appetite:  Abseiling Santa Clauses… blazing braziers… plentiful pizza… Carols by candlelight… Fruit punch and mince pies… Gathering round a grand piano in the open air with friends old and new to celebrate Christmas as part of the big and ever-growing Titanic Quarter community.

If it’s a nice crispy winter evening, we’ll gather at the Kit sculpture at the marina in front of the ARC apartments; if the weather outside is frightful, we’ll duck inside the Odyssey pavilion.  Either way it promises to be a Christmas bash to remember!