Some more snaps from the exciting world of Dock…

First up, a fantastic concert at the Thompson Dock – a chance to visit Titanic’s Dock at dark of night, walking along that incredibly atmospheric concrete basin filled with shadows and to stand beside the looming keel blocks and riveted metal gate under a starlit sky – awesome.  Followed by eats and drinks and top-quality chilled tunes in the Pump House Cafe.  A great night!

A complete contrast to dark-of-night: a glorious sunrise over the TQ.  Walking to work one day from a different train station (I thought it would be quicker… I was utterly wrong) I turned a corner to meet this gorgeous vista of the Titanic Quarter seen from the far side of the lough.  Dock Cafe is in there somewhere, if you squint!

Time to introduce you to a few unsung heroes of Dock-World.  The group gathered here are the Community Rescue Service, who gather every Thursday night at Dock Cafe for training and planning – before doing a fantastic job looking out for the safety of those in the Lagan area late at night at weekends.  They are a great bunch and we’re delighted that the cafe is providing a useful base for them.

Another unsung hero is Joe – the Dock treasurer.  He drops in every week to make sure that we have enough money to pay the sandwich man, the milkman, the baker, the candlestick maker and all the people who make Dock Cafe tick.  He also sits and faithfully counts out every penny of the donations from the Honesty Box – or at least until we purchased “RoboJoe” – a money counting machine that does the work of countless minutes in just a few seconds!  We were worried that Joe 1 would be offended by the arrival of robotic Joe 2 – but as you can see, when we introduced them, he looked quite pleased…!

And a great way to end a great week on Friday night – Katie’s Fabulous Fundraiser in aid of TearFund.  Life in the Titanic Quarter just keeps getting better…

 

There’s a snazzy Panorama camera function on iPhones now – so your pictures of Dock-world will now occasionally come in extra-wide format…

Like these shots of a busy lunchtime in Dock Cafe:

…or Titanic Belfast at night, seen from the end of the slipways:

…or a glorious day in the TQ – old and new side-by-side:

Mmmm, stretchy.

It’s been a while… but it’s back!

The Dockumentary provided a timely reminder of just how much fun we had in the very early days of The Dock, before cafes and teams and camera crews, just boiling up a kettle and setting up some deckchairs in the public space outside the Arc Apartments for our pop-up ‘Meet The Neighbours’ events on Saturday mornings.

So a long-overdue resurrection: this Saturday from 11-1, coffee and scones on the house, time to meet up with the fabulous people who are moving in to the TQ and forming its very first community.  See you there!

Modern technology, eh?  Those who recorded Mission Titanic on good old-fashioned video recorders, or even (how quaint) actually watched it when it was on, got to see the full story… But anyone who tried to catch the Dockumentary by Sky+ing it was left without the crucial last 4 minutes, as the late-running UTV schedule on Sunday night befuddled the electronic brain of the mighty box.

Which left Mission Titanic as the most infuriatingly unfinished story since Edwin Drood (literary reference to impress Susan).  Without the last 4 minutes, it’s the Story of a man looking for a boat – That’s a nice boat! – Community in the Titanic Quarter looks like fun – They’ve got a nice boat in Cardiff – Setbacks, medical and boat-related – Will he get his boat? – It’s the 11th hour and all looks bleak – But wait! A miracle! – It’s – it’s – END OF PROGRAMME

So for anyone still teetering on the cliffhanger, I proudly present: