Loads of new opportunities to get involved in the TQ, dinner with the Mayor, a visit to a whole new part of the TQ, and my very own sweat-shop… it’s been quite a week!

Maybe I should explain the sweat-shop first… the time had finally come to gather together all the letters of encouragement and endorsement which have been flooding in from all sorts of v. important people since the launch of the Business Plan back in June; we’ve got letters from all the main political parties, all the main church denominations… a really exciting symbol of the amount of support and enthusiasm for The Dock.

Those of you lucky enough to have got your hands on a Business Plan will know that there’s a little flap at the back just waiting to be filled with such letters… so some willing (?!) volunteers from Sydenham Methodist selflessly gave up their Friday night to do just that.  Lift a letter from each of the 15 piles… shuffle them together… guillotine off the edges… slot them into the Business Plan… over and over again… there’s no denying it was a Friday night to remember!  HUGE thanks to all the volunteers!

(And if you’re keen to see some of those letters, they’ll be available at the Dock Birthday Party on Tuesday night – they make for an incredibly encouraging read!)

In other news this week, I had two separate meetings which left me filled with optimism about all the opportunities that lie ahead in 2012.  To your right you can see Elisabeth and Paola from Focolare (along with Dock Director Michele), who are behind an initiative called Run 4 Unity, passing a baton across countries and cultures between different groups of teenagers running all over the world.  It’s taking place on 12th May next year – more details as I get them!

And to your left you’ll see my chum Helen, who is the Director of a huge project called Land of Giants – a kind of multimedia/circus/storytelling/interactive/acrobatic/mind-blowing extravaganza on the Titanic slipways on 30th June, telling the stories of the giants of Northern Ireland – not just the Titanic, Olympic and Britannic, but the Cave Hill (inspiration for Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s travels), Finn MacCool and the Giant’s Causeway… There’ll be loads of chances for people to get involved both up-front and behind the scenes – a real community event.  Again, more details as I get them!

And finally for now, while, y’know, having dinner with the Mayor (oops, did I mention that again? Dearie me…) I met Liam, the main man behind the T13 skate park opposite the Drawing Office in the TQ.  We’d met some of the guys who regularly use the park at some of the recent Meet The Neighbourses, but this was my long-overdue first visit to see what they’ve actually got going in that massive shed – it’s fabulous!  Massive half-pipes and ramps and errr… BMX/skateboardy things (I started off that sentence trying to sound like I know the lingo, but was a bit doomed to failure there…), with a great community vibe and some brilliant, laid-back people who can do eye-popping things with bikes and skateboards.  Another brilliant part of the TQ mix – check them out in action here.

And really really finally, a stunning, golden Autumn day for Walking Tours today – so a few beauty shots of old boats (Caroline and Nomadic) glistening in the sun.  Boats, eh?  They’re great! – so see you on Tuesday night….

First up, an invitation. Clear your diaries, book the babysitter, set the Sky+… next Tuesday (15th) you NEED to be in the Titanic Quarter for:

Yep, hard to believe that our little baby Dock project is now a toddler approaching its second birthday and learning to walk… and a birthday party is a chance to stop, step back to tell the story of the past year, and then celebrate in style!  There Will Be Cake…

And I’m bursting with excitement about the chance to tell this year’s story.  Some incredibly exciting Dock news and some big revelations will be unveiled amidst the cake and cookies and chocolate…

As a little taster, let me tell you about last Saturday.  Many’s the time you’ve heard me say on this blog that I’ve just had the best day EVER.  Well it happened again on Saturday – I’m losing count of how many Best Days one man can have…

The day started with a slap-up fried breakfast and a chance to share the Dock vision with a great, friendly bunch of people at the Dundonald Methodist Men’s Breakfast.  Suitably fed and fired-up, I headed back to the TQ for Meet The Neighbours – and as Karen has already shared, like pretty much every other MTN we’ve ever held, it was the best one yet!  The fun and buzz of being part of the build-up to the MTV EMA – the craic was mighty with the Belfast wing of the Justin-Bieber-omg-ilovehimsomuch movement (or the Beliebers as they prefer to be known) – who even asked for my autograph!

Trying to stay humble (ahem), it was also fantastic to be part of the chat with people from the apartments who are now starting to get to know each other, build up community, and really feel part of the place.  It was fantastic to hear one resident even out-enthuse me about how much she just loves the TQ!

And as an added bonus, we got to meet the guys who can often be spotted Spidermanning across the high buildings of the TQ washing the windows – John and Craig have seen the TQ from a whole different angle and they’re keeping it sparkly clean – respect!

So the morning was all about the future of the TQ and its emerging community.  The evening was all about the history of the TQ and the community who worked in the docks down through the years: we went to see The Boat Factory, a two-man play about the shipyards, the men who were their lifeblood, and the gutsy, rough pride they had in the dangerous but awe-inspiring work they were doing.

If you haven’t already seen The Boat Factory, if you get the chance, move Heaven and Earth to see it – it is superb.  Two actors brilliantly take on a variety of roles, sometimes switching through a series of characters within a single scene, to tell the full sweep of the story of the emergence of the shipyards from the mud of the Lagan.  Then the story settles down to concentrate on two characters – a nervous new apprentice and the cynical but poetic old hand who becomes his supervisor and ultimately his friend.  The full range of emotions and experiences – the induction rituals, the dirty jokes, the rivalries, the details of the job (with lines from Harland and Wolff instruction manuals counterpointing the action like a litany) – feel utterly real.

By the end (skip this paragraph if you don’t want to know!), by the time we join the two characters at ‘crow’s-nest-height’ at the top of the Arrol Gantries, looking out over the sprawl of Belfast from the Cave Hill to the Mourne Mountains, looking down on the shipyard that has broken their bodies but fired their souls, there are lumpy throats and muffled sobs throughout the whole audience, as a room-full of people taste and share the fierce pride of the men who built Belfast.  These are the shoulders we stand on.

So – best morning ever: a taste of the future.  Best evening ever: a taste of the past.  So if I tell you that the morning and the evening paled into insignificance compared to the afternoon – an afternoon with an invitation, an adventure, a journey, and a surprise – and if I told you that I’ll tell the story of that afternoon (and a few others which were just as good) at the Birthday Party, will you be there?

You’d better!

Belfast is the smallest city ever to host the MTV EMA awards show – but boy did we do it in style! And of course The Dock was there – not letting a piffling little detail like the lack of a ticket stand in the way of a full Dock report… So let’s go live on location with some smug people with tickets and a lot of very loud Justin Bieber fans…

Today’s Dock Walk will have a slightly different perspective than usual… with the roads and car parks around the Odyssey all blocked off for the big MTV bash tonight, we’re going to meet instead at Belfast Castle at our usual time of 3:33 – allowing us to look out over the Titanic Quarter from above as we meet to chat, walk, pray and enjoy God’s fabulous world…

See you there!

UPDATE: …and it was fab!  A glorious Autumn afternoon, a brisk climb, good company and a stunning bird’s eye panorama from the Cave Hill over the city – with the evening sun gleaming off the panels of Titanic Belfast and the brickwork of the Pump House.  We read from the Psalms, listened to God Of This City, and prayed for this fantastic place we love.

The buzz around the city today is electric as the engines rev-up for a weekend of MTV madness. Belfast is the smallest city ever to host the MTV awards, but there’s a real sense that the city is pulling together to make the weekend something special.  The atmosphere is great – I even got a standing ovation from a crowd at the back gates of the Odyssey just for driving past in the campervan!

(for everyone who’s intending to lock themselves in a bunker for the weekend, terrified of chaos on the roads – everything was flowing perfectly normally today.  There’s information here about road closures over the weekend if anyone’s worried…)

I thought it was worth quoting the words of Andrew Irvine, Belfast City Centre Manager (full article here) – partly because he’s a thoroughly nice chap, partly because he’s RIGHT!

“There’s a palpable sense this will change a world view of Belfast.

This will communicate to 500 million people worldwide what Belfast is really like – that’s a game changer.

This is the starting pistol for 2012 and a massive year for the city with the Titanic centenary.

Seize the chance, now is our moment.”