Hi Strummerboy Bill - you're fogriven.
Aaargh - ukuleles are 'proper' musical instruments - and many are at 'proper' prices 
I play a kala concert uke made of golden acacia which I has a pickup and preamp on board. I also have (my favourite) Okana vita-uke made of mahogany veneer with a spruce top which gives a lovely light lilting tone to it.
Also - I tried to play guitar in my teens and just managed to break nails and tangle my fingers in the strings. And I couldn't work out how to strum to save myself! So now many (many) years later I've got a second chance to make music and enjoy strumming and singing with other people, which is part of the joy of it all.
I started learning ukulele about two and a half years ago.
As beestie said, we are in a couple of local ukulele group and we enjoy challenging ourselves to learn more. We learn a lot from each other and encourage each other heaps. We are also able to laugh at ourselves (and sometimes at each other) when we make mistakes - that helps to keep it all in perspective and we achieve more by not being precious about it. When you stop trying to be 'perfect' you often end up doing much better than you thought possible.
On a ukulele, the chords I've used aren't all that difficult. The progression of [D]-[Dmaj7]-[D7] just requires moving the little finger along one fret at a time, one beat at a time, while the index finger holds a bar chord. The two slides, [G]-[Gb]-[G] and [D]-[Db]-[D] are a simple slide back and forth using the same chord shape that you start with, so there's no mad rush to move the fingers about other than moving up and down the fretboard. Changing the chord mid-word just happens with keeping the strum going and moving to the next chord between the beats.
My other song, which is very lighthearted and a bit silly (Marian's Lament) uses some really difficult chords, and lots of them, just to keep me on my toes! But I think I prefer this simpler one.