You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog

Facebook certainly has its uses, particularly when it comes to tracking down special interest groups. "How lovely it would be," I mused, "to spend an evening of my holiday strumming and singing with an Isle of Man ukulele group. Surely there must be one.

And yes, there was – The Ukes of Mann. Bernadette was listed as the group's Facebook admin person, so I sent her a message, asking whether they were meeting while I was on the island and, if so, whether I could join them. Sadly, though, Bernadette explained that her group wasn't currently functioning but she would see whether the Peel one was. She also kindly admitted me to the Facebook group so that I could respond to any replies. Out went the message and a few hours later back came the reply: "Not at the moment Bernadette. Lots of things going on. Holidays, allotment, weddings etc."  Bother!

But then another message appeared on the group's page:

I contacted Millie to offer my services as a novice Ukulele tutor... and to my delight she accepted. With Millie's help I found a shop in Douglas to photocopy some simple music and on Tuesday evening four brave pupils and I gathered in Millie and Graham's lounge to tune up our ukes, drink tea, eat chocolate biscuits, learn three chords and play You ain't nothin' but a hound dog. And oh what fun we all had!

Graham, Millie, Christine and Karen

I was extremely fortunate to learn the ukulele at Matt Stead's wonderful evening classes in Ross. Unfortunately for this little group, no-one seems to be offering anything similar on the Isle of Man, but perhaps some other experienced player will find the time to help them along. I do hope so. Christine has ambitions to play her uke at a folk festival in Ireland... and why not?  Go for it, Christine!