What’s your favourite Christmas movie?  Retro (It’s A Wonderful Life), modern (Elf), slushy (Love Actually) or left-field (Die Hard)?  Does it have to have Santa (Miracle on 34th Street) or Muppets (Muppet Christmas Carol) to qualify as a proper Christmas classic?

Whatever your tastes, we’ve got you covered in the Titanic Quarter this Christmas.  The Dock’s very own pop-up DOCK Market (as well as running loads of market days to help you with your Christmas shopping – click here for details) is playing host to a brand new venture called Pop Up Film Club – showing big-screen Christmas movies in the midst of a Winter Wonderland every evening from 13th-21st December.

Click here for details of dates and films, or to book a ticket – and here’s the pitch:
Pop-Up Film Club presents a week-long Christmas extravaganza to set alight your festive spirit.  This is so much more than just watching a movie!  From the minute you arrive you will be welcomed through our Narnia inspired Wardrobe into our enchanting Winter Wonderland bedecked with snow, fairy lights and plenty of Christmas flavour.  Before you take a seat stroll through the Candy Cane Forest where you can try some of the finest gourmet food Belfast has to offer.  We bring the Christmas Market to you!

How can you resist?

PS – in case you didn’t catch the news on UTV last night, the Beach project wasn’t successful in attracting some of the People’s Millions – but huge thanks to all who voted and hearty congratulations to Charis Cancer Care, a very worthy winner.

UPDATE ON MONDAY: The voting phone lines are open from 9am today and close at midnight.  From landlines simply call 09015 228214 or from mobiles call 6228214. It only costs 15p from mobile & landlines and you can vote up to 10 TIMES (every one counts)

If you have no idea what these phone lines are for, read on…

Paris has the Paris Plage… Sydney has Bondi Beach… Portrush has the Strand…Isn’t it about time Belfast had a beach of its own?

On Monday you’ll have the chance to vote for a cool new addition to the Titanic Quarter landscape.  Titanic Foundation, along with lots of support and enthusiasm from the whole Titanic Quarter community, have put in an application to the People’s Millions to build a beach right beside Titanic Belfast as a chilled-out community space and a fun place to relax and feel the sand between your toes:

The fund will help us ‘Build a Beach’ within reach located in the heart of Titanic Quarter creating a friendly, healthy place easy to get to on foot, bike, bus and car for our local residents, workers & students as well as visiting tourists. A safe place for neighbouring communities to bring their children to play, to socialize and of course enjoy ice-cream.

The Beach will be a venue for sporting, cultural and educational events and activities from beach volleyball to building giant sand castles to playing life size board games. There will be beach huts – a must for the Belfast climate. Plus the perfect location to welcome the arrival of the Tall Ships.

We will involve local people in summer beach activities, we will work with local schools in the design process and recruit, train and work with a team of volunteers who will help with regular beach maintenance and assist with the organisation of beach events and activities. A place that will engage with and attract local communities, providing a space that belongs to everyone.

If you think it’s a good idea, you have to lift the phone and vote on Monday 24th November – the People’s Millions are awarded according to a public vote and your call might make all the difference…

The phone number isn’t released until Monday morning – so check back here on Monday morning for the number and get dialling.  Each person is allowed to phone and vote 10 times (each call costs 15p).  So vote early, vote often!

And tune into UTV Live at 6pm on Monday night, where you’ll see some familiar faces (and some familiar deckchairs) from Dock-world involved in the filming of a promo for the beach – a chance for Dock volunteers, TQ residents, BMC students, local businesses and more to get behind a project we’re all really excited about.

And d’you know, even though it was a freezing November morning, as soon as we walked onto our little mock-up beach, started building sandcastles (Siobhan’s were especially meticulous), slurping ice-creams and playing catch, everyone started to smile.

Beaches are good, and Belfast needs one!

You might’ve noticed that this blog has been a bit quiet for a few days…  Taking a little bit of time out to grieve with my (much) better half Susan and her family on the death of her brother Stephen, a gent if ever there was one, and a great loss.

Just a quick post today to say my heartfelt and profound thanks to the Dock community, who gathered round, prayed, supported and loved us through the past few days.  What an immense thing, in the midst of a stressful time, to receive a text message from the Dock volunteer team telling me that all my shifts in Dock Cafe had been covered by other volunteers going above and beyond the call of duty, and I was NOT to come in to work under any circumstances!

Is The Dock a church? is a topic of much debate.  (Well, I say debate, I mean long rambling conversations at theological college coffee tables across the land.)  If a church is where you find the warmth and grace of God’s love expressed in the practical kindness of his followers – then The Dock has definitely, profoundly been our church over this past week.

Thanks everyone!

Well that’s fairly close to the top of the list of Blog Post Titles I Never Thought I’d Use – and indeed Sights I Never Thought I’d See…

Massive respect to Sally and the Cable and Wake gang for this subtle, dignified event at the Titanic Slipways today – just part of a jam-packed few days with the Boobettes who are here in Belfast on a mission to save some lives…

Three of the team are alive today because they checked – so follow their example and check out coppafeel.org (or chat to Wee Chat Buddy Diane) for more information.

And while you’re at it, click here for the full set of pictures from The Big Wooden Box

The Dock’s Wee Chat Buddy, Diane (who describes herself as a young-ish booby cancer survivor) is organising a week with a difference in Dock-world next week.  A booby week.

We’re being visited by the Boobettes (see coppafeel.org for more info) who are on a mission to remind people to check their boobs and moobs – as they put it:

Do you check your boobs or moobs?  Or know you should but don’t know why?  Or how?  The CoppaFeel Boobettes are coming to give you the lowdown on why it’s important to get to know your pair.

There will be some wakeboarding with flying boobs on the Titanic Slipways on Wednesday morning (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d type), a Boobettes presentation at 5:30pm in Dock Cafe on Wednesday evening, as well as lots of chances to chat in the Belfast Met and at the Dock over the couple of days of the Boobettes’ visit.

Don’t miss it… if for no other reason than to see my ‘rabbit in headlights’ look of terror for the whole couple of days – I mean, the La Leche mornings in The Dock are usually enough to freak me out…  But the Boobettes are on a potentially life-saving mission so I’m going to cope!