Pleasant chaos reigned in Dock Cafe over the last few days as normal business continued amidst the ladders, scaffolding, drilling and hammering of the team who arrived to fit our shiny new heaters.

We’ve been looking at several different options to keep Dockers warm over the winter months, and eventually we’ve gone for the kind of heaters usually seen warming open-air diners in Parisian pavement cafes!  If it’s good enough for Paris…

(and looking out at the weather, I think they have arrived just in the nick of time – apparently Winter officially starts today!)

As we prepare to enter a whole new era of toasty-warmness in the cafe, maybe it’s time that I introduced you to the two heaters who have been struggling manfully to keep us warm through the ever-balmy Northern Irish Spring and Summer.

Our longest-serving soldier is this faithful old Super Ser (remember them?).  I found out from some of the students this week that the Super Ser has a name – they know it (her?) as ‘Malin’s Girlfriend’, in honour of one of the student gang who used to snuggle up especially close to the heater as they gathered on the comfy sofas!

(Which may be a very little thing, but it makes me just so happy when I hear stories like that.  How many cafes do you know where the heaters have been given a nickname?  I LOVE it that the students feel so at-home and comfortable in the Dock… long may it continue.)

The second heater is a more recent acquisition, but as soon as I saw it lurking in B&Q I knew we HAD to have one for The Dock!

In essence it’s a glorified Super Ser, but designed to resemble an old furnace – exactly the sort of thing I can imagine everyone gathering around at lunchtimes in the shipyards.

I’ve always been inspired by the stories of the revivals, Bible studies and faith discussions that happened around the furnaces in the heyday of the shipyards.  So nothing makes me happier than when The Dock’s very own shipyard furnace is used to continue that tradition.  Yesterday I had the huge privilege of taking part in the Metropolitan College Scripture Union discussion, sharing ideas and reactions and challenges from a passage in Luke’s Gospel as we gathered around the furnace.  Faith being “fanned into flame”, as Paul encouraged Timothy.

So I’m looking forward to basking in the glow of the Parisian pavement cafe heaters for the rest of the Winter – but as the most beloved heaters in The Dock, they’ve got some catching up to do!

There’s a new face in town these days… I’ll let him introduce himself!

Hello, I’m Andrew. I’ve chosen to do a placement at the Dock as part of my training course at The Church of Ireland Theological Institute, which means I’ll be hanging around the Dock on Fridays until Christmas. I’ll be working alongside Chris, making trouble for him and asking difficult questions and , no doubt, he’ll want to return the favour by asking me to get stuck in making tea, meeting the regulars and brainstorming the way forward for the Dock Café.

My first day was huge. I was swept along by a wave of challenges and surprises. Who know that a steady stream of my dear friends from Albany, New York would flow through the door of the café? It was a blessed day indeed. I’m already excited about what my next day by the sea might have in store…

(PS from Chris – the idea that fresh young (?!) trainees like Andrew can be sent to me for training and direction is humbling, hilarious and slightly worrying all at the same time… I’ll try my best not to break him!)

And while we’re talking about new faces, a familiar face from Dock-World reappeared in our lives this morning: the incomparable, unconquerable Eamonn Holmes sat down for a chat while I was meeting Chris Hollies, the Dock Co-ordinator, for an early-morning breakfast (in a secret location that was Not Dock Cafe – ssshh, don’t tell Tegan).

If you don’t yet know the incredibly pivotal role that Eamonn played in the life of The Dock, click here…

Dock Cafe is beautiful.  Somehow, that big concrete warehouse we moved into 8 months ago has become a home from home, a safe space, a place of welcome and friendship and laughter and life.  I’m storing up some tales to tell you soon of some of the conversations and good news stories to have happened in that wonderful room – but for now (it’s a Sunday night and I’m bushed) let me just say it again: Dock Cafe is beautiful.

Of course part of the fun of the place is that it can always be a little bit more beautiful – and that’s where the Hive Mind comes in.  They’re a bunch of arty, creative, boundlessly imaginative people who meet from time to time to brainstorm ideas for the physical space of the cafe – and then when they’ve finished brainstorming (and imbibed enough caffeine), they pick up a drill, a paintbrush or a piece of chalk and get to work!

Things like constantly adding colour to anything that looks a bit too grey…

Or adding extra signage to point people in the right direction…

Or making the whole place brighter (the ‘Waste Titanic’ now glows from within!)…

Or helping customers understand how the whole ‘Honesty Box’ thing works…

Interested in joining them for their occasional sessions of ‘playing house’ in the biggest, best blank space in Belfast?  Just get in touch!

To cap off a thoroughly superlative day in Dock Cafe today, I was invited by one of our regular customers to check out the view from his balcony right at the top of the Arc Apartments… looking good TQ!

Hiya! It’s been a few days – it’s not that I’m ignoring you, but I was away at a retreat in exotic Ballybofey…

Every 2 years Bishop Miller (who you might remember from such TV shows as Mission Titanic) takes all of us minster-types away for a few days to recharge, listen to some great teaching, eat some great food and enjoy some great company.  (I have a hard life).

It’s a great idea and heartily recommended – it’s easy to get caught up in the relentless momentum of everyday life, and occasional ‘sabbaths’ from the madness can be hugely healthy for body and soul.

But just so you know I didn’t forget you entirely, I did take a snap of a brand-new cafe concept we found in McIlhenny’s department store in Ballybofey (click the pic to see the full picture) – they’re obviously into their coffee-shop-fusion concepts in a big way Out West…  Would it catch on in Belfast?