Time to upload another treat – another Dock Movie Premiere – from the birthday party a few days ago: the video of Eleanor.

Eleanor is one of the most fantastic people I’ve met over this past year.  She’s a living example of the power of story, the way a human perspective brings history to life in a way that facts and figures never can.  Her memories of her father, and his very specific and significant role in building Titanic, are crystal-clear and absolutely fascinating.  So without further ado: Enjoy!

Well that was (you’ll be surprised to hear) the BEST NIGHT EVER….

Still a little breathless after the excitement, buzz and activity of The Dock’s second birthday – what a night!  More pics and stories to follow over the next few days, but for now I suppose I’d better clue all of you World Wide Web Dockers in on the big news of the night:

To nobody-at-all’s surprise but to everyone’s evident delight (the gasp of joy that went around the room when the pictures appeared on the screen made the entire last two years worthwhile!), The Dock has got its sights set on a particular boat.  Its name is the Arctic Penguin, it is currently for sale in Scotland, and it is 100 feet of 100-year old craftsmanship and loveliness.  And here it is:

So in exactly 24 hours we’ll be celebrating The Dock’s second birthday – 8pm, Tuesday 15th Nov, at the Arc Apartments.

For those of you travelling in from outside the TQ, I thought I’d draw an extremely beautiful and helpful map:

There’s loads of parking in the Premier Inn or Odyssey car parks – at the cost of 90 whole pence per hour.  Go on, treat yourself!

And for those of you coming from within the TQ, you know where to find us… Meet The Neighbours, mulled wine, summer barbeques, deckchair cafe… yep we’re using our ‘pop-up cafe’ shop unit at the base of the Arc apartments, facing the marina (the unit closest to the Odyssey).

Seeya there!

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!