I’m a man of few words, as y’know…. so for today I’m going to let the pictures do the talking.  It’s been a busy, exciting, joyful month of Life in the Titanic Quarter – here are some of the highlights:

There was the day I joined some of the lads from TQ Ltd and the Mace to try TQ’s latest greatest water sport: wakeboarding at the end of Titanic Slipways.

(In the interests of responsible journalism, I should point out that any pictures of someone successfully wakeboarding must be one of the other guys, as I spent most of the time upside down in the Lagan.  I can report that it tastes clean, but salty.)

Speaking of responsible journalism, this blog has won a prize!  Click here for details of The Dock’s website and blog victories.

The pic shows Annette, our Diocesan Communications Officer, accepting our prize at General Synod.

The Dock Pop-Up Market is proving to be a bit of a hit – we’ve had great stalls recently like Steph’s charm-ing jewellery (left) and on Saturday you’ve got another chance to bag a bargain at Anabel’s craft stall (right).

Loads more great stalls coming up over the next few weeks – like knits (created by Sip/Sit/Knit, our very own Friday-morning knitting group) and home-made Belgian waffles!

If you’ve got something worth selling, make sure you grab an application form in The Dock – it might be the start of something great!  (As long as your product is better than the “multifunctional” grey box on wheels in The Apprentice last week.)

My two worlds collided this week when St Clements – the friendly Belfast parish who keep me out of mischief when I’m not at The Dock – called in for a visit and a tour of the TQ:

And it was great to see some familiar faces from Holywood (where I worked before my life changed forever when The Dock began in late 2009).  If, like St Clem or the Holywood gang, you’d like to book a group in for a cuppa in the cafe, a tour of the area and an update on the story of the Dock, just get in touch!

Speaking of Holywood, Andy (who was one of the brilliant youth leaders in the church when I was there) got married a few weeks ago; as well as being very honoured to perform the ceremony, I also had a blast at the reception – which happened to be in a wee gaff just up the road called Titanic Belfast.  What a spectacular place for a wedding reception!  (And has anybody ever been to a function upstairs without coming home with at least one Grand Staircase photo?)

One of the great joys of Dock life – introducing people to each other – making connections across our ever-expanding community.  Just one of the hundreds of chance encounters that happen every day: the new Nomadic visitor crew (nearly there now… nearly there now…) meeting the Titanic Foundation team in The Dock:

And a gorgeous moment from today: a group using the Prayer garden for a little gathering with visitors from Portugal.  Songs and prayers in both Portuguese and English echoing across the cafe as we were closing up for the day:

And finally, a few more snapshots of Dock life.  A hen party (a sensible, non-scary one) in The Dock… deckchairs on a sunny day… chess tournaments stretching out all afternoon… Segway tours whirring past…

This is the life, eh!

Of all the things I’m most proud of in this life, possibly the highlight is the tagline I came up with for the Titanic Quarterly – the magazine that The Dock publishes for residents of the ARC apartments. Ready for it?….

‘For everyone enjoying ARC life’

I know, I know – amazing.  (And now you’ve got that Blur song in your head for the rest of the day).

For anyone looking at ARC life from a distance, I thought you’d still like to see the issues of Titanic Quarterly we’ve already produced over this past year – so they are now available as PDFs under the ‘Media’ tab of the website, or you can click to have a look at them below.

Enjoy!

Another little bit of fame for The Dock: we’re now featured as a ‘place to eat’ on the GoToBelfast website – link here.

It’s a bit surreal to see our home-made little pop-up coffee shop listed alongside luminaries of the Belfast dining scene such as the Potted Hen, Mourne Seafood Bar and Molly’s Yard – but hey, why not?!  Dock Cafe is unique and I think that Tegan, Timmy and the team have loads of reasons to be very proud of it!

So the next time you’re wondering where to go for a cuppa, here’s the GoToBelfast entry in full:

The Dock is unique: a pop-up space for community, conversation and Life in the Titanic Quarter.  Furnished (in true pop-up style) in a fusion of old and new (we call it Victorian-Edwardian-Industrial-Pop-Up-Chic) it’s a space to relax, unwind, meet up and chill out.  You can enjoy hot strong coffee, a huge variety of teas and delicious bakes – or BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) and use our plates, knives and forks.

You can find a table, a squashy sofa or a cosy corner to watch the world go by.  You can browse a huge range of art and photography – from archive pictures of Titanic under construction, to cutting-edge art, to photography of Belfast’s shipyard at every stage of its history.  Explore some unique artefacts from Belfast’s shipbuilding heyday – models, relics and furniture from the evocative Harland & Wolff Drawing Office building.  (There’s even a door from Thomas Andrews’ family home.)   Dabble with a huge range of board games and jigsaws (if you have a few hours to spare…)

Find out all about what’s on offer in the Titanic Quarter at the information stand (or by chatting to the  enthusiastic volunteers).  You can pick-up a bargain at the pop-up market stall, which is available for all sorts of different local cottage industries and home businesses. Take time to pause and reflect in the Prayer Garden – a little corner of greenery, light and quiet in the corner of the cafe.  You can strum on the Titanic Guitars (as long as you are at least a 3-chord wonder) and even meet Kate and Leo (they’re the goldfish).    Everything – the art, the food, the coffee, the photography, the sculpture – is local and home-made; the whole enterprise is volunteer-run, and the ethos is hand-built with love.  We’re here to celebrate the good news in Belfast and enjoy Life in the Titanic Quarter.

Today we re-started one of my absolute favourite experiments in the life of Dock-World: the Titanic Slipway Pilgrimage.

It’s a walk around the outline of Titanic on the slipways with pauses for reflection at various significant points – the lifeboats, the names of the lost, the water’s edge etc.  Music and different readings from ‘A Night To Remember’ and Filson Young (a journalist who witnessed Titanic’s launch) bring the story alive and also give food for thought.  I suppose the whole thing is a mash-up between my experience of being a Titanic Walking Tour guide, a Chaplain and a Dock Walker!

Today we had a great group of people – Canadians, Australians, locals (and even some English people – but they were nice).  The plan is to run the pilgrimage walks every Friday and Saturday (weather permitting) at 2pm (note the new time).  The walk is especially intended as a grace gift for anyone who’s just emerging from the Titanic Belfast visitor experience – but anyone is welcome, so if you’d like to call by TB at 2pm some day over the Summer. it’ll be great to see you!

On the way back from the walk, in the middle of that ferocious hail-storm this afternoon, I bumped into Wesley – whose cool panoramic photos already feature in Dock Cafe and are about to feature a lot more.  He captured this beauty of a photo – as you can see, the pilgrimage walk finished just in time before the storm came!

Life never stands still for long in The Dock.  We’ve just welcomed our new next-door-neighbours on one side – the TQ Mace – and now we’re getting ready for the grand opening (at the beginning of June) of our next-door-neighbour on the other side: the lovingly-refurbished SS Nomadic.

Long-term Dockers will know that we’ve been following the fortunes of this fabulous old boat with great interest.  Nomadic is our last best physical link back to the Titanic – built by the same men, at the same time, with the same metal and rivets (and even the same door frames and light fittings), Nomadic was the tender (taxi) boat that carried out some of the great and the good to the Titanic when she docked at Cherbourg.  (Although in fact her story doesn’t begin or end there – the little ship has had a tumultuous, fascinating century before ending up right back where she started).

As the Dock has progressed from vision, to walk, to team, to pop-up cafe – Nomadic has progressed from rusty wreck, to scaffolding-encrusted project, to shining beautiful ship (albeit with a few tarpaulins still in place for the finishing touches!)

And I’ve been onboard!

And for once – words just fail me.  It is sensational.

This is just a little sneak preview – the work that’s been done on the interpretation and presentation of Nomadic’s story is absolutely stunning, and I promised not to spoil any of the surprises for when (not if) you visit yourself.

Getting ready to go on board (along with the brand new SS Nomadic visitor crew, who were also experiencing it for the first time!):

Perfectly-reproduced floors, original benches upon which Molly Brown’s bum once sat, rivets and metal and wood of Titanic antiquity:

And lovely details and windows into the past – little sections which have been left unrestored, in all their 102-year-old glory:

Now I know I’ve been known to get a bit enthusiastic about these things.  Rusty old coal-cart tracks out on the slipways send me into raptures of joy.  But I really, really thought that Nomadic was absolutely out-of-this-world.

Exciting times!