The day gets off to a fabulous start.  As we open Dock Cafe we’re visited by an amazing group of kids from Fleming Fulton school, who have a tour of Dock Cafe before getting stuck into the juice and biscuits.

They stop off for a prayer in the Prayer Garden before heading out to see the Titanic Quarter…

…and of course the unstoppable Titanorak gives them a tour of the Titanic slipways.  (More great pics here)

Then it’s back to the cafe in time for lunch – a whirl of people meeting, eating, drinking, thinking.  Some of the guys from PRONI try the place for the first time; the students bag all the good seats (but we love them anyway); the cafe is filled with colour and life, different accents and languages and conversations.

Ciaran calls in and it’s so good to see him that a bit of man-huggage happens.

An ARC-apartment resident, one of our very first customers and first volunteers, now moved off to exotic climes as part of his job.

He’s back in Belfast for a week and Dock Cafe is where he’s checking in to catch up with the gang.  It’s great to see him.

The cafe gets a bit more chilled as the afternoon progresses.

The nice bright seats at the window are used for some away-from-the-office work on the cafe wi-fi (with occasional breaks to watch the world go by).

The comfy sofas become the scene of an intense chess match  (I think Piers wins).

Evening falls over the Titanic Quarter, the lights go on across Belfast, the glow of the Dock Cafe heaters gets cosier as the night grows darker.  The Belfast Met Christian Union gather in the Prayer Garden for their weekly meeting, filling the space with prayers and chat and ideas.  They’re getting ready for a big outreach night in Dock Cafe next week; it sounds like it’s going to be great.  (Although they’ve asked me to speak, which might be a bad idea).

Last few customers, last pot of coffee.  A guy calls in to talk about using the cafe as the location for shooting a music video.  Two customers at the table are having a language lesson.  7pm, door locked, time to wash up and hit the road, with that lovely sense that this has been a good day, well lived.

Another day of Life in the Titanic Quarter.

OK so the new improved, renovated, revolutionised cafe has now been open for just over a week – time to start showing off some of the new features!

The first one I’d like to tell you about is the first one you encounter coming in through the door – there’s now a strange construction that looks like a garden shed tripped over an Ikea wardrobe. What can it be?

It’s the Dock’s new pop-up market stall and I’d love to see it being used to the max by anyone who has something to sell that they make themselves: cupcakes, traybakes, bobble hats, knitted cats, calligraphy, photography, jam, jewellery… you name it!  (and – you made it, that’s the one condition.)

To encourage any budding Alan Sugars, the deal goes like this: you book the Dock pop-up market for a day.  We give you £10 as an investment in your business – to help buy your flour, or wool, or wood, or whatever you need to get started.  The market stall is all yours to sell your products on the day you’ve booked – and if the profits come rolling in, it would be great if you could make a return investment in the Honesty Box – but (as always) it’s completely up to you!

The great news is that even though it’s still a bit of a work in progress, the Dock Market Stall has its first booking – tomorrow (Sat 9th), Ruairi, one of our regulars from the college across the road, will be selling home-made wood-turned products.

If you’re free to call in between 11 and 5 to support our first-ever entrepreneur, it would be great to see you – and you might even pick up something nice for the kitchen or a cool, unique pressie into the bargain!

And get your thinking caps on if you think you’d like to use the stall for your own handiwork – it would be great to see the Dock Market used day-by-day, and the word spreading that there’s always going to be something unique and hand-crafted available along with your coffee in our beautiful wee cafe.

Nine days… A ticking clock… Some amazing volunteers… The task: a top-to-toe upgrade of our beloved Dock Cafe.  It’s like a Challenge Anneka for our times!

We’re back baby!  Yesterday saw the grand re-opening of Dock Cafe after a stupendous week of DIY TLC from a fantastic team of volunteers.

The makeover looks phenomenal – more pics of the new cafe setup will follow soon so you can all wallow in its goodness (and repent of every single second that you don’t spend here).

For now, just a few shots from Jeremy at thebigwoodenbox (full set can be found here) of the opening itself – including a glimpse of the goodies that Stan the Baker prepared for the big day:

And the moment that a ravenous public were unleashed on said goodies:

And a few shots of the grand tour, when we walked everyone around to show off all Dock Cafe’s new features and funky bits:

And a picture of a very special moment – the official opening of The Dock’s new prayer garden.  It’s our favourite feature of the new Dock Cafe and one which we hope will make a massive difference in our TQ world – the first time in the area that a space has been set specifically aside for prayer, reflection and the work of God.  And in line with the Dock ethos, the hands that you can see holding the scissors to cut the ribbon belong to a Methodist, a Catholic, a Presbyterian and an Anglican – the shared medley of Dock life at work: