Time for an update on the update to Dock Cafe – with MASSIVE thanks to everyone who has put superhuman effort into our major makeover during this past week!

The first morning was spent clearing away all the furniture so we could start cleaning and painting.  We started out with the lovely, cosy cafe we all know and love – by lunchtime we were left with an empty shell (pic right) – gulp!

Then the crew really got to work…

And when the cleaning was done – it was time to start on some long-dreamt new features for the cafe.  I’ll be honest – there were times when I wondered if we’d bitten off more than we could chew.  The deadlines were tight (and there’s still plenty to be done tomorrow – Monday – if you’re free to call in and lend a hand!)  But the volunteers were AMAZING – cafe volunteers, students from the Met, residents from the apartments above us, locals keen to lend a hand.  An incredible team.

So we’re now at the stage that I can issue this invitation with the confidence that it will be something special:

And what will you find, you may be wondering?  What are all these whispered improvements?  Just what have we been hatching?

Well you’ll have to turn up on Tuesday to find out – but just to give you a few hints:

…for a week!

Yes, this is the long-awaited week when all our long-hatched plans for improvements and upgrades to Dock Cafe will be put into action – as well as a much-needed spruce-up and deep clean (we have, after all, had somewhere in the region of 50,000 customers through the doors since we opened).  And so we’ll be closed to the public for a few days (but definitely open to anyone offering to help wield a paintbrush, mop or screwdriver – just get in touch!)

Not to reveal too much at this stage, but the various improvements include something to do with a forest, a garden, making a fortune, drawing, designing and travelling on two wheels.  Intrigued…?  Then make sure you book Tuesday 26th Feb at 2pm in your diary for the grand re-opening – or, if you prefer, the opening day of Dock Cafe Version 2.0!

Which means that when we closed the door on Saturday, we closed one chapter of Dock life – our last day of Dock Cafe 1.0.

And, as is always the way with these things, it was just a perfect day to finish.

A lovely crowd of customers, a joyous bustle of life and chat and laughter; different nationalities, different personalities.  Tourists, students, residents, visitors, the whole TQ mix.  A real sense that the cafe is  becoming the ‘local’ for a new community.

The knitters knitted and nattered (knattered…?) – as you can see on the left.

Everyone enjoyed the comfy sofas – as you can see on the right.

And as we turned out the lights at the end of the day, and the streetlights outside our gorgeous big picture windows poured their glow over the sofas and tables and chairs and cosy corners that have seen so many thousands of conversations and good times over this past year – it was a wee bit of a moment!

What an incredible, emotional, blessed year it has been in this wonderful space.  Dock Cafe 1.0 – we’ve loved every day.   And the great thing is – the best is yet to come…

I think I’ve just made the best-ever Dock movie… It’s the traditional Dock day-in-the-life snapshot of Titanic Quarter at the beginning of each new year.

Most of the footage was actually recorded back at the beginning of January (honest!) – but as a sign of how busy life has become here in the TQ, I didn’t finish editing the movie until Valentines Day.  Which is appropriate really – as it turned out to be a bit of a love letter to the TQ – the place that gives me hope for Belfast city.

I found myself getting quite emotional as I edited the footage together – interviews with people in the TQ about their memories of 2012 and their dreams for 2013, and some clips of the unprecedented, unmatched joy of being part of the Titanic Year in the Titanic Quarter.

It made me realise how quickly even I (with my pathological inane positivity) had started to forget or discount those memories of joy and optimism in the dark days at the start of 2013.  It’s really important that we keep telling the stories of life.  So I’d love you to make the time to click the link and watch the vid:

By the way, if you’d like to catch up on the previous instalments of what is now becoming a series to rival the Bond movies, they’re still on Vimeo – click for 2010, 2011 and 2012.

It’s quite something to look back through them and see a wilderness, becoming a building site, becoming a community. Or, if you like, a baby (nice start, but doesn’t actually do much) become a toddler (mess, the Terrible Twos, lots of noise) become a child (identity and personality starting to form, lots of “look how you’ve grown!” comments from observers). To stretch the metaphor to breaking point, you can even see in this year’s video the ‘first day of school’ moment when TQ grew up, on 31st March as the doors of Titanic Belfast were flung open.

Isn’t it great to watch change in action – to realise that Belfast isn’t stuck?

So, how’s the first day of Lent going?  Just in case you’re feeling too virtuous, at Dock Cafe we like to tempt you to breaking point – so these scrumptious cupcakes were on the menu today:

Just in case you think Stan the baker is getting very fancy – they were donated by BMC students from the Catering College.  Just one example (of loads recently) of creative, unusual ways that people are donating to the Honesty Box – we’ve had people bringing in freshly-baked cakes, home-made Rice Krispie buns, baskets of fruit, home-knitted blankets, spare mugs… you name it!

A little sign that we might not all be especially cash-rich at the moment – but with a bit of imagination, we can all still help each other out.  Life in the Titanic Quarter at its best.

Hard to believe – but we’re now heading into a MAJOR season of anniversaries for the Dock.  This time last year, we were poised to sign the agreement for the use of the empty concrete shell that would become Dock Cafe.

So, this time last year, The Dock didn’t have a home.  This time last year, there was no ‘local’ for TQ residents to meet each other.  There was nowhere to pick up a loaf of bread or a pint of milk.  There was no whisper of an Honesty Box, no little cosy cafe with squashy sofas and nooks and crannies and quiet corners; no team of volunteers; no chillin’ with the students; no Titanic Guitars or Suki tea or local photography or knitters or singers or chess-players or…

This day last year, we got to work sweeping up the concrete dust so that the floor of the unit was ready to be painted once the lease was signed.  (Big shout out to Joe and Elaine, who did most of the sweeping, and Jonny and Olwyn, who turned up when the work was all done…)

And that means that we’re approaching The Dock’s BIG anniversary.  We’re calling it Eamonn Day – because the week of our most frantic activity, our boldest move forward, our brightest creativity, our hardest work and our greatest excitement, we did it all for Eamonn:

Eamonn Day is 26th February.  Mark in your diary now, for this year and for all time.  Because we have some big, big plans as to how we’re going to celebrate…