Interesting to see the fashion for ukes is trans-Atlantic. Here in the US it's the biggest trend I've seen in ages. All sorts of folks are picking up playing them in and out of the folk community. Our suburban library has a monthly uke club session.

The quality of the instruments varies wildly. I've seen racks of them in wild bright primary colors for not-so-much money at dulcimer fests. One of the lads in our open band brought an incredible gorgeous blue resonater uke with multicolored strings to the annual picnic. It's such a happy instrument, it seems and most folks do talk about getting one with exclamation points in their chat.

My favorite ukelele instance was years ago when I was working the door for an Andy M. Stewart and Gerry O'Bierne concert. O'Bierne is a fantabulous musician and did a dynamite intro on "Echo Mocks the Corncrake" and went on to talk about the uke underground, mentioning an all uke punk band called "Uke till you Puke" (what else?)

Wishing you much joy of yer new musical toy,

Joanne in Cleveland