LOTS going on at the Titanic Quarter this weekend… (just for a change eh?!)

Tonight at we’re hosting Fashion Footlights – an evening of food, fashion and chat – at Dock Cafe.  If you’re wondering why I’m telling you about it in the present tense, it’s because it’s HAPPENING NOW and I can blog about it using Dock Cafe’s new free wifi!  Hurrah!

So, hot off the press, a few pics from tonight:

And tomorrow night, hope you got your tickets (they were snapped up in a flash): Land of Giants is coming…  the most intriguing description I’ve heard is ‘Cirque du Soleil on the Titanic Slipways’!   Judging from the setup and rehearsals I’ve glimpsed over the past week it’s certainly going to be spectacular; I’ll be there as your trusty correspondent as always!

To whet your appetite (if you got a ticket) or make you go “oh man, I can’t believe I’m going to miss that!” (if you didn’t), check this out:

An historic handshake happened today!  At a line-up in Titanic Belfast, during a swanky lunch hosted in honour of the Jubilee, I got to shake hands with the Queen!

(Oh, and apparently someone called Martin shook her hand today too.)

It actually, genuinely was a great honour to be in the “handshake queue” along with many of the great people from the world of Titanic Quarter.  And, I’ve to tell ya, it’s actually very nerve-wracking!  As this tiny figure in apple green approaches, you go through your mental inventory of correct forms of address, things not to say, things you should say…  Until eventually my moment arrived, and I gabbled something incoherent about the chance for the churches to work together in the Titanic Quarter.  To which HM the Q gave her verdict: “That’s a lovely idea!”

Just in case that got me feeling too cocky, a few minutes later I had the same moment with Prince Philip – who responded to my babbled one-line description of the vision of The Dock by moving wordlessly on the next person in the queue!  (respect!)

So – to compensate for the lack of pictures with this post (I was a good obedient boy and kept my phone & camera switched off for the whole event, as ordered on the invite!), I hereby present the new version of the Dock logo complete with Royal Seal Of Approval:

And, in the interests of balance:

I’m off to put up my feet now – I’m knackered!  And I was only at a small part of the day of activities – how do the royals do it?!  Great respect and love to them from The Dock – and what a fantastic, hopeful day for Northern Ireland as we provided a Good News headline which echoed around the world.

***EDIT FROM YEARS LATER:

Fantastically, although I was obviously unaware of it at the time, someone did manage to snap a pic of this Historic Encounter as it happened:

and after a hard-fought battle to come up with the best caption for it, we went with:

It’s VERY busy in the Titanic Quarter today – VERY.  (we ran out of Stan’s yummy scones by 1:30!)  It’s almost as if something big is about to happen…. hmmmm… maybe I’ll be able to tell you more tomorrow!

In the meantime, just to prove (in case it’s relevant) that I can indeed show proper decorum at swanky high-class events (this was taken at the Diocesan Synod), this photo appeared on the Down and Dromore website this week and seemed to demand a Caption Competition…

(Why was I holding a flowerpot??  Why??)

What a great Friday night at Dock Cafe… good music, good food, good buzz, good shwapping… and all for a good cause.

The shwapping (swapping instead of shopping) was done by scores of people who have signed up to the ‘Wear It Out’ campaign – a ‘Fashion Fast’ where people commit to buying no new clothes, shoes or gadgets for three months – giving the money saved to causes such as the Fields of Life project to bring clean water to villages in the developing world.

As part of the ‘fast’, people are encouraged to find creative ways to meet, chat, engage and encourage each other through the long retail-therapy-free months.  So Jessica had organised a Wardrobe Swap at Dock Cafe on Friday night – so that people who weren’t buying any new clothes could share, swap and go home with something which maybe wasn’t brand new – but was new to them!

What a perfect picture of exactly what Dock Cafe is here for.  The buzz and mix of people, sheltering from the unrelentingly stormy night over steaming cups of coffee with home-made cupcakes, great acoustic sets by local musicians, and the lure of some new togs hanging on the rails at the back of the cafe.

Chat, welcome, laughter, music, faith-in-action, imagination, community.  Life in the Titanic Quarter – it’s what we’re here for.

Continuing on the theme of bloopers…

Today was the second anniversary of the most embarrassing moment of my life… and if you’re new to the Dock blog and haven’t yet heard the story of the parsnip, the synod and the lady with the black eye, click here to allow me to confess all – or here to meet the lady in question…

As well as providing many, many, many opportunities (many) for people to come up to me and say “I hope you haven’t brought any vegetables today, ho ho!”, the Synod is a good chance to reflect on the changes and chapters of Dock life.

Two years ago, the only reason I was using parsnips in the first place was that the Dock was completely conceptual – an idea – illustrated with visual aids (-slash-weapons).  It began with a vision – the vision of a shared community space where Life in the Titanic Quarter could flourish.

One year ago, I stood before the assembled noteworthies again – this time equipped with bundles of Business Plans.  The vision had become a team – the team had formed a company – the company had written a Business Plan and was serious about searching for a space – at that stage we thought it would be a boat – where the vision could be lived out.

This year I needed no visual aids.  The vision is tangible to anyone and everyone who walks through the door of Dock Cafe.  We thought it would be a boat – for now, as it turns out, it’s a pop-up cafe – but the dream of those early days is being given form in daily conversations, cups of coffee, chill-out sessions on comfy sofas.

It’s an impromptu acoustic session on one of the Dock Cafe guitars, where a crowd gathers around someone who unexpectedly decides to serenade us.  It’s the chat of the knitting group on Tuesday nights as they put the world to rights over the clack of knitting needles.  It’s local community representatives gathering to talk about the future of Titanic Quarter.  It’s a group of students finding a place to relax and de-stress between exams.  It’s neighbours meeting, community connecting, life happening.

So how appropriate that this day, of all days, was topped and tailed by two incredibly exciting meetings about the future of Dock Cafe.  The always-unpredictable story of The Dock is going from strength to strength – a Good News story, an adventure, like no other…