A couple of people at Brighton Pride suggested that we organise a trip to the Canary Islands. They said that they go almost every year, and combine a week’s diving with a week of clubbing & partying.

This seemed like a reasonable suggestion, so I thought I’d find out whether there would be enough interest to run a trip to Tenerife.

Prices for a week’s B&B in a Gay-friendly hotel or Apartment in March/April are in the range £300-£350, including flights. A 10-dive package is around 200 Euros, meaning the total cost would be less than £500. Of course, if people want to stay for a second week of clubbing, that’ll cost extra! Another option would be to rent a villa (or two), and arrange seperate flights - this could work out about £100 cheaper, depending on the number of people.

I’m open to suggestions for locations, Dive operators, time of year to go, etc. (please leave a comment below). Initially, though, I’d just like to know how many people might be interested in GLUG trip to Tenerife, so if you’re a GLUG member, and interested, please log in, and register your interest on the Events Page - this doesn’t commit you to anything, but will help me decide whether it’s worthwhile trying to organise a trip.

For more information about gay-friendly accommodation options, see the SpainGay website

For descriptions of Dive Sites in Tenerife, have a look at the Aqua-Marina website, or Tenerife Dive

So far there’s been only limited interest in the South Africa trips (at least according to the stars on the Events Page).

It would be nice to get some feedback about the proposed trips - they can be tailored to what we want, so if you feel that they’re too long, too short, too expensive, at the wrong time of year, etc., etc., please let me know - either by adding a comment to this post, or by emailing me (members can click on my name at the top of this post).

If you are interested, but haven’t registered your interest on the Events Page, please do so now (you need to log in first, then click the “Register” button).

Hi.
I couldn’t wait to next year to dive The Protea Banks and felt it was my duty to go and check it out before next year’s GLUG dive. Has anyone dived there before and if so, could you kindly reccommend a dive company and accomodation.
Many thanks in anticaption.
Charlie

Conservationists say nearly two-thirds of the Caribbean’s coral reefs are threatened

At a recent conference in Oslo of members of the European Prides
Organisers Association, owners of the EuroPride licence, it was unanimously
agreed that London would be the recipient of the title in 2006. The
dates have been fixed for EuroPride Festival Fortnight from 17 June 2006
with the EuroPride Day- comprising the Pride Parade and Pride Rally -
on Saturday 1 July 2006.

The GLUG AGM and Christmas Meal will be held at the Lye Torng Thai Restaurant & Bar, Elephant & Castle, on Saturday 4th December. This will replace our normal monthly meeting - there will be no GLUG meeting on Tuesday 7th December.

Members are asked to arrive at 5pm, in time for a 5.30pm start to the AGM.

The Meal will be served at around 7.30pm, and will be traditional Thai-style, with a selection of starters to be shared (so that everyone can try a little of everything), followed by a selection of main dishes (again shared). For each course, a couple of the dishes will be heat-free, a couple will be mild, and one or two will be spicy, but if there is sufficient demand, a heat-free menu could be arranged for some people. Likewise, vegetarians will be catered for, given advance notice.

Some GLUG members have reported that sometimes when they receive an email notification of an update to the website, they click on the link, only to receive the message “Sorry, no posts matched your criteria”.

This happens when the email refers to a members-only post, but you’re not logged into the site. To see the post, you need to login.

(You can stay permanently logged into the site by ticking the “remember me” checkbox on the login page, but you shouldn’t do this if the computer is shared with other users).

Neil.

PADI “Scuba Diver” Course - Pay And Di[v]e Instantly?

Ever wanted to try Ice Diving? - Win a trip to Norway

New members joining before the end of the year will receive a free “Gym” Towel, embroidered with the GLUG logo. Of course, they’re ideal not just for the gym, but also for clearing up those little spills that guests leave! (You know what I’m talking about…!).

Just send in your completed Membership Form, together with a cheque for £10, payable to GLUG, and we’ll send you your towel.

I’d like to say a big “Thank you” to those who came along to help at Cardiff Mardi Gras: Ceris & her partner (whose name I’ve forgotten - sorry!), Paul & Sian (hope I spelt that right), and most especially to Rob & Neil, who not only stayed for the whole afternoon, but also brought along all sorts of nibbles: chicken legs, sausages, smoked salmon pinwheels, and a particularly nice cheese & bacon flaky pastry concoction. What with all that, plus the Metropolitan Community Church handing out cakes from the stall next to ours, we didn’t need any dinner!

Once again, there was a lot of interest in GLUG, and although we only signed up one new member on the day, we gave out almost 300 leaflets. The encouraging thing was that although by the end of the day there were hundreds of other leaflets lying discarded on the ground, we didn’t see a single GLUG one that had been thrown away.

So, to anyone who’s reading this having picked up a leaflet on Saturday, Welcome!. Please have a browse through the site, and if you have any questions, either about GLUG, or about Scuba Diving in general, please email us using the “Contact Us” link in the menu.

Finally, I’d also like to say a special Thank You to my partner, Ignacio, who has put up with me dragging him to three different Pride events around the country this year, and has been tireless in helping to promote the club, even though he doesn’t dive!

Neil.

This isn’t about diving, or the G&L community, I know, and I know I’ve harped on about this before, but…

Some of the people who receive an email notification about this message have PCs which are infected by Viruses. How do I know? Well, I’ve started getting viruses sent back to the address that these emails are sent from. Since the address is not one which is advertised anywhere on the web, the viruses must be being sent from someone who has received one of these emails, and therefore has this address on their PC.

Unfortunately, since the virus disguises the sender’s address, it’s virtually impossible to find out exactly where it’s come from.

If you already have a virus checker installed, and you keep the virus definitions updated regularly, and you schedule regular scans of your system disk, then congratulations! You can stop reading here! If not, read on…

UK dolphins could be wiped out