All,

I received this today from the DFL (Diving for Life) organisers:

We are excited about Diving for Life at Phi Phi Island in Thailand October 18-25, 2008. The trip is selling well, and we have booked enough participants to have exclusive use of our section of the resort. (Thai hospitality dictates that a small section of the resort be available for other guests.) However, we still have capacity to add more particiapnts. Please go to our website, http://www.divingforlife.org/ for more information about this year’s trip and to obtain registration forms. We also have some wonderful add-on trips on the website, if you are inclined to stay in Southeast Asia a little longer.

Please pass along information about Diving for Life to other diving friends. We are pleased to have registrants who have never been to Diving for Life this year from all over the world, and it is always nice to expand our community. We hope to see you in Thailand.

Kelly Thiemann and John McCall

DFL Co-Organizers

Several people have asked for details on when the Rare Species Conservation Centre (the Trust is the UK registered charity which owns and operates the Centre) was holding our fundraiser, so I’m posting it up here. We’re holding it the evening of Saturday, May 17 at 6:30pm, at the zoo in Sandwich, Kent. The function will include a South-East Asian barbeque, cocktails, beer and wine, and special functions with the many nocturnal and crepuscular species at the RSCC.

B&B spaces in the area are filling up rapidly so if you’re thinking of attending and staying the night, I recommend you do so quickly so that you can make sure you get a room.

All funds raised on the evening will be going to the in-situ conservation projects we help to sponsor in South-East Asia, including helping such species as Sun Bears, Clouded Leopards, and Owston’s Palm Civet, all of which are on exhibit at the RSCC. Because many of the animals that the RSCT supports aren’t very well known in the West, projects to protect their natural habitats and protect them from poaching are often very desperate for funds. This is a particular problem at the moment with several small projects we sponsor in Cambodia, where an unexpected and immediate loss of funding from one large American charity has led to animal welfare suffering due to lack of money to provide food and veterinary care. In such countries, the price of your ticket can go a lot farther than it would in the UK, so every little bit really does help. Furthermore, your entire ticket price may be considered a charitable donation under the UK’s Gift Aid policies if you’re a UK taxpayer.

The print version of the invitation can be seen here: RSCT Fundraiser Invitation 

If you’re interested in attending, you need to fill out the RSCT Invitation Response Form and send it into the zoo with payment.
Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see some of the GLUG people there!

London Frontrunners are performing a “Gay and Ghostly” pantomime, in aid of Stonewall, at the Drill Hall on Sunday 13th January at 4pm (bar opens at 3pm). Tickets are £8, and are available by calling The Drill Hall on 020 7307 5060.

It’s Christmas Eve, and Charles Dickens isn’t the only one turning in his grave. As snow falls on Soho, a séance unleashes a quartet of gay and lesbian ghosts who create havoc for the inhabitants of Scrooge’s hotel.

Washerwoman Helena Handcart is all in a spin. Her son, “Tiny” Tim the kitchen boy, wants to know who his father is. Meanwhile, Scrooge’s celebrity niece, Kelly, has gone into hiding (or is it rehab?). Bob Cratchit just wants someone to help roast his nuts.

And Scrooge is planning to evict them all. On Christmas Eve. Without even the dignity of an incompetent interview with Davina McCall.Can the ghosts make him change his ways?

DFL (Diving for Life) is three-quarters full, so if you’re thinking of going, I suggest you get your booking in quick. This year it’s in Belize, 29th Sept-6th October. Come along and have some fun and do your good turn for charity at the same time. See their website: www.divingforlife.org.

The AGM and Christmas dinner will be held on Saturday 9th December. This replaces the usual monthly meeting on 5th December.

The AGM will be held at Konditor and Cook, 46 Grays Inn Road, EC1X 8LR at 5.00pm. All are welcome from 4.00pm for a glass of mulled wine and seasonal nibbles, courtesy of Gerhard Jenne. As usual, we will be making a collection for the benefit of the Food Chain, our nominated charity. This will be a minimum of £10 per person, to cover wine and a contribution to the Food Chain.

If you plan to attend this event, please email Gerhard in advance, so that he knows how many to cater for. (If you’re logged in to the website, you can click on the envelope which appears at the top of the post, or alternatively use the Contact Form to send an email, and select “GLUG AGM Registration”)

An agenda will be published in due course. We hope to see lots of you on the 9th.

(This is coming virtue of Brian Broadbridge, who asked me to post it as he’s not posted in the past)

We have been invited to participate in a Gay Sports Group Quiz Night being organized by the London Frontrunners (with whom we share many of our members). Brian will be organizing at least one team, but if we get enough turnout it will probably be possible to have multiple teams. Please comment on this post or email Brian directly if you’re interested in putting together a team!

Logistics are:

• 7:00pm on Sunday, 1st October
• The Downstairs Bar, the Black Cap in Camden
• Entry is free but collections will be made for NRG, a charity which is part of the Terrence Higgins Trust and provides support for young lesbian and gay people in London.

This should be a great social function in its own right, but also a great chance to meet members of other gay and lesbian sports groups.

London Diving Chamber will once again be hosting the Dive Lectures at the RGS (Royal Geographical Society) following last year’s success. This year’s speakers will include: Monty Halls, Leigh Bishop and Loyd Grossman. The event is held in support of Scuba Trust - a charity devoted to giving people with physical disabilities an equal opportunity to experience the pleasure and excitement of scuba diving and the underwater world.

Date: Thursday 2nd February
Time: 6.30pm
Location: RGS, Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR

Registration is free, but numbers are limited.
Could I ask any GLUG members who want to attend, to email me (click on the envelope at the top of the post, or leave a comment below), no later than Tues 29th November, and I will then register everyone.

Note: Last year several GLUG members registered, but then only 2 of us turned up - this reflects badly on the club, so please, if you register, do make an effort to turn up!

More more information, see the LDC (London Diving Chamber) website

London Frontrunners are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 2nd London Pride Run on 25th June 2005 in Brockwell Park at 11:00 in the morning.

The first ever London Pride Run last at year in Victoria Park was extremely successful with over 430 registrations. We were able to raise £1,500 for Crusaid, which will again be our nominated charity, looking after people with HIV/AIDS.

“This year’s 10k run will be even Bigger and Better” says Niv Ben-Yahuda, Chairman of the Pride Run’s organization committee. “London Pride Run will be one of the highlights of the 2005 fortnightly Gay Pride activities across London”.

The 2nd London Pride Run also coincides with the 10th anniversary of London Frontrunners, the UK only gay and lesbian running club and we will celebrate this event with a party at Heaven on Saturday night, with a fantastic show by the cabaret duo Topping & Butch.

On-line registration is now open. Visit www.londonpriderun.com for details on how to register online

Diving For Life will be held at Habitat Curacao from 10-17th September 2005.
Registration forms will be are available from the Diving For Life web site shortly now!.

Pride London is inviting gay and lesbian groups to their Community Forum on Thursday 11th November, at which plans for next year’s Pride Parade, Rally, and Festival Fortnight will be discussed. The GLA are hosting the forum.

The free Pride London now has full charity status, and is classified as an official London attraction which allows ‘legal’ motorised floats on the Parade through central London on Saturday 2nd July 2005.

The new Pride Board is chaired by Stephen Coote of www.gaytoz.com, and Jason Pollack has been appointed Chief Executive. The Board will be looking for people to join various subcomittees, especially to develop a more colourful parade and create events for the two-week long Pride Festival.

Pride have also won the licence for EuroPride 2006, which will double or even treble the number of gay visitors to London on 1st July 2006

The forum will be held in City Hall, Queens Walk, Tower Bridge, London, from 6.30pm-8.30pm on Thursday 11th November. If anyone would like to go along to represent GLUG, please email me (click on the “Contact” link on the left, or on my name at the top of the post).

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 summer barbecue yesterday was a great success. Once again Gerhard did us proud, with so much food that we couldn’t eat it all!
We had chicken skewers, salmon fillets, sardines, baked butternut squash, potatoes with crab, cumberland sausage, squid, homemade burgers, as well as plenty of salads, roast vegetables, and desserts to die for!

The weather was very kind to us, with one of the hottest days of the year so far, and the 30 or so people crammed into Gerhard’s garden certainly enjoyed themselves.

The GLUG Summer BBQ will be held on Sunday 1st August, from 4pm. Gerhard has very kindly agreed to host the BBQ at his house near Waterloo once again.

As anyone who came last year will know, the food is always excellent - certainly not the typical burgers and bangers BBQ fare! I remember some particularly good marinaded salmon, and rather good meat kebabs from last year.