Hey Beakie,
Welcome mate, I am also from Newcastle and did the same as you, had a sniff around the site for a while an joined up last night, still trying to work out how to navigate the site and make sure that I am replying the right way, I have just asked a member who is on line a few questions
I went onto the general part of the site to say I was a newbie, had 8 welcomes since last night, hewaps of friendly people