My new purchase

When I was 16 (23 years ago!) I went to the Solomon Islands. At one point on a remote island I was transported from one village to the next in a little dugout canoe. The people probably did a lot of canoeing from place to place. It could get boring. So, being human, they figured out a way to make it more fun. They sang!

And did they ever sing. They sounded like angels, because they do it all the time, I suppose. There was no electricity from what I can remember. Maybe there was a transistor radio. But if they wanted to listen to something good, they had to make it themselves.

Their voices were quite harsh to my western ears, but landed in exactly the right place every time, and they constantly sang in harmony. The children joined in quite naturally. I loved it. I wanted more of it, and I still do.

So what did I buy today? Not a TV, or an ipod, or an ipad, or even a mobile phone. I don't have any of those things. But I bought a ukulele! It's beautiful.

The three of us who are aged over 5 have hardly been able to put it down!

I'm working on sending the chords into my automatic brain, so I can let loose and play the many songs in my head that are begging to have a better reason to be sung.