How many ukuleles can you fit into a camper van and caravan?

I am growing old dis-grace-fully, but less dis-grace-fully than I might...

I had already acquired either as early or on-time birthday pressies my electro acoustic concert size uke, a tiny mini practise amp (clips on a belt, fits in a handbag), a wee pickup for the soprano, bag and pub prop for the soprano, an electric kazoo, and a stylophone (a la Rolf Harris, remember them?), and there are still a coconut hand drum and some £3 secondhand electronic drumsticks coming in the post. To my enormous surprise, thanks to the generosity of the souls around me, I still had some birthday money left over to spend!

So we wandered into a music shop in Canterbury today.  It was full of little fluffy clouds and blonde haired men and women in white garb sitting on them playing harps. Or at least it seemed very much like Heaven to me! The percussion corner caught my eye first of all and the variety of fancy bits and pieces there was fascinating enough, but I decided I should abstain. So we wandered round to the books, but the huge variety of instruments surrounding me kept calling to me. Mandolins, yummy, balalaikas, yummier, a whole corner of other strange and exotic stringed and woodwind instruments.

Then there it was... the  banjolele. Which is a kind of cross between a banjo and a ukulele. I have often admired their shiny glory on eBay but had not met one in person. Here there were several, and stunningly beautiful they looked to me too. After I finished swooning I picked up the entry level one to have a play with. They use the same tuning/chords as the uke so I could play it straight away. Jingle-jangle love at first play! Now the uke will always be my first love now, with the kazoo coming a quirky second, but the banjolele is very very sexy,and quirky, too! Unfortunately starter banjoleles are in a VERY different financial league than starter ukes and so I did not have enough. For a short while there popped up, amidst this Heavenly environment, a serpent in the form of the thought of raiding our fledgling van repair fund then spending the next month listing my craft materials stash on eBay dawn til dusk to repay it. I was strong, reader... I could not be THAT dis-grace-ful.

However they did have a cheap baritone uke that was within what I had... so I put away the Bob Dylan songbook I'd picked out that would have put me over budget if I had got that as well .. and walked out within budget. But with another ukulele... how many ukuleles can you fit into a camper van and caravan?

My excuse for this one is that it is tuned entirely differently. Basically it is tuned the same as the top four strings of a guitar. Being bigger than the soprano and concert ukes I have, but not so big as to make it too difficult for me to play as the guitar had been, it has a more bassy sound. Aside from the fact that I will be confusing myself immensely by learning two different sets of chord shapes at once now, this has some advantages. I can use it sometimes when playing in our uke group, or with David, to compliment the higher-toned instruments and pick out bass lines to allow for different arrangements.

Had I not bought this, whilst I had the money to hand in a lump, the cash would only have gone on little bits and pieces..

I know... I'm dis-grace-ful... we will need an instrument trailer...