I just wanted to update this thread as if it is come across by a noob like myself I hope it might be useful. So... The result of the post I made originally was that I made contact with more people and in fact someone offered and did give me some fantastic mentoring from Canada via emai, IM, etc. (should I name drop.... I'll leave it for now, he might be ashamed of me, or have forgotten me by mow) I attended a London.pm workshop and that was great. And I am really pleased that there is now a PM closer to me in Thames Valley (where the topic/idea of newbie mentoring has been mentioned).

Unfortunately, I don't get much time and opportunity to code in Perl, my work has me doing stuff in another well known language starting with 'P' which is popular for Personal Home Pages.

Perlmonks (of course) has been an excellent resource for learning and discovering how to write better Perl. Especially when coupled with trial and error.

The book "Perl Best Practices" has become more relevant to me as I've absorbed more. It was a bit much when in full on Newbie mode. I understand much more of it now.

Of all the above, obviously a real live person actually sitting there doing 1-1 was the best and I learnt an amazing amount really fast. Perlmonks is 'the' place to ask questions, assuming you ask good ones.

So, fellow noobs seeking help, I can recommend strongly hanging around here and picking up "Perl Best Practices" and getting involved with a Perl Mongers group. But finding a mentor is definitely my #1 tip if you want to learn "how to do it right". Your local Perl Mongers group is probably the best way to find people who A)know what they are talking about and B)might consider giving up their time to mentor you.

Anyway...
Just my two cents worth as a followup to a question that didn't destroy my XP as badly as it could/should have. :)

Lance