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!

A cake has been delivered to The Dock… a birthday cake to be eaten tomorrow.  But whose birthday is it?

Hard to believe, but it’s the first birthday of our Sunday night services – which began on board SS Nomadic on the first Sunday of November 2013.  Since then we’ve enjoyed hearing stories, testimonies and inspiration from all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds; we’ve sung together hymns both old and new; we’ve prayed for and given thanks for The Dock in more ways than I can count.

We’ve had a number of ‘firsts’ in our Sunday night services as well; back in February, we introduced our two first-ever Dock staff members, James and Joachim; in June, we redefined the whole Dock story (see It’s not a boat – it’s an umbrella); and last month, the neighbours of The Dock, the Mace and the Nomadic celebrated the Titanic Quarter’s first-ever baptism.

And of course we’ve moved just next door… for the last few months we’ve been holding our Sunday evenings amongst the squashy sofas and cosy corners of Dock Cafe while the coffee brews in the background…

So – join us this Sunday (2nd November) at 6pm in Dock Cafe  to share in that cake, that coffee and that incredible story… a new church forming amongst the friends and neighbours who find this strange, wonderful pop-up cafe to be their home.

We’ve even got our Sunday Nights a birthday present… after a few months of my not-overly-artistic signs for the door, which were beginning to scale a whole new universe of scrappiness, we’ve finally got a proper sign!  So see you at a proper Sunday Night at The Dock:

So here’s a little suggestion to calm your worried mind as the season for panic-buying Yankee candles for Aunty Mildred approaches.

I’m willing to bet that if you give yourself one day at Dock Market, complete with your list of all the far-flung relatives you need to buy presents for, you will WIN at Christmas in one day flat.  (If you don’t, your coffee is on the house!)  There’s such a variety of unique, handmade gifts on offer from the Dock Market creatives that I can’t honestly imagine that you’ll need to shop anywhere else – and of course you’ll be supporting local plucky start-up businesses into the bargain.

AND you’ll be able to treat yourself to amazing freshly-cooked food and nibbles while you’re browsing.

AND you can collapse at Dock Cafe with your shopping bags afterwards and have a nice cuppa, safe in the knowledge that Christmas cannot scare you and a panicked last-minute losing battle with car park queues and psycopathic Christmas shoppers is off the menu.

So, put in your diaries RIGHT NOW the dates of the next few Dock Market days:

Saturdays 8th & 22nd November 11-4pm

Saturdays 6th, 13th & 20th December (yes, every week!) 11-4pm

Thursdays 11th and 18th 6-9pm

By the way, did you see Tanya, one of our Dock Market superstars, in the Belfast Telegraph during the week?

The article is here (note that she managed to squeeze in a shout-out for both Dock Market and Dock Cafe – score!) and her amazing Bendy artwork is on display in  Dock Cafe and on sale at every Dock Market.

And just in case you’re worried that Dock Cafe is losing out in all this love for the Market recently, not a bit!  We’ve been enjoying a fantastic busy bustling half-term week with all the usual life, laughter, coffee and craic…

Made your plans yet for a nice chilled-out Saturday tomorrow?  Well forget everything else in your diary, here’s what you’re going to do: head down to the Titanic Quarter between 11 and 4 and check out the amazingness that’s happening at Dock Market these days.

Last time I visited the market, intending maybe to get a bite of lunch and have a wee potter around, I left with my arms full of purchases (and my pockets empty of money, but I didn’t care!) – the quality, uniqueness, craftsmanship and sheer brilliance of what’s on offer at Dock Market these days is really quite breathtaking.

As well as a mouthwateringly fantastic lunch (steak sandwich with béarnaise sauce…mmmmm….) I went home with some delicious homemade spicy American relish (which has graced every single panini and sandwich I’ve made ever since), some Oreo cookie cupcakes (which might just be the best invention ever ever), a bag of hand-blended gourmet tea (Mint Humbug – isn’t that the best flavour of tea?) and even some jewellery…

(Before you start to worry, the jewellery was for Susan and she loved it) It’s great to get chatting to all these creative types as well – Laura goes beachcombing in Donaghadee after every high tide, looking for interesting bits and pieces to become the raw materials for her jewellery stall. How much better than some bland mass-produced gift…

And of course I’d rather support Dock Market traders any day, every one of them a handmade homemade local enterprise, than buy something identikit from a global brand or a massive retailer.

I’m just so proud of what the Dock Market team have achieved.  Just like Dock Cafe, they started with little more than an empty space – but the application of some creativity, generosity (we’re getting some AMAZING donations of furniture – check out this amazing industrial-chic sofa!) and a lot of extremely hard work has resulted in Belfast’s best bet for a lovely laid-back Saturday.

It’s another case of the Titanic Quarter showcasing Belfast creativity at its best.  Where once we built ships – today we create art – and cook steak sandwiches – and design fashion – and upcycle seashells – and invent new cupcakes – and make bendy paintings – and create gourmet waffles – and – and – and…

Click the link here to check out some lovely bigwoodenbox pictures of Dock Market in action- much better than my cameraphone efforts!

The next time you feel stuck in a rut, discouraged or trapped, pay a visit to the Dock prayer garden and seek out this little reminder that change, transformation and hope are all around us…

Unless you’re a sad shipyard nerd like me, you might not have noticed the careful placement of pictures on the wall of the garden.  The one you can’t miss is the massive shipyard model (on loan from the Drawing Offices) which was created in about 1980 (as best we can guess) to show off Belfast’s massive shipbuilding empire:

As you can see the model has suffered a few knocks over the years and a few bits have fallen off – which is nothing compared to the real-life story of the yard through the decades after the model was built.  So many of those little grey wooden blocks represent workshops, paint halls, offices, stores and sheds which are now long gone.  Ten years ago, contrasting the thriving industry of that model with the largely-deserted reality would have been a sobering exercise.

But that’s not the end of the story… the next picture (again on loan from TQ Ltd) is the architect’s vision of what could be built on that once-thriving site.  (I know it looks like a photo, but look closely and you’ll see that everything except the crane and the Odyssey is just a computer-generated projection – a dream of what could be):

I’m sure there were times when that artist’s impression looked like a far-off dream.  But today, a photograph from that same angle looks almost identical to the computer-generated vision – but this time with real homes and shops and offices (and a stupendously-wonderful Honesty Box cafe) in place of pixels:

And widen out the view (as this picture is one of Wesley Ellis’s fantastic panorama photographs) and you’ll see that not only at the ARC, but all across the TQ, dreams are becoming reality – the Met, Titanic Belfast, Nomadic, all our amazing neighbours and all the life they bring:

So, these pictures are now side-by-side in the Prayer Garden, telling the story of a shipyard, that became a wasteland, that became a vision, that became a reality.  How appropriate that they’re in a garden, a place of constant growth, renewal and rebirth.

The next time you feel stuck – call in and have a look!