Well after finding myself a nice remote island to base on, I foolishly used my entire supply of coal making torches to light up the whole area to avoid mobs (F7 hunting!) - arrogant in thinking I'd immediately find coal, which I didn't! So thanks to local for supplying me with coal would have needed to eat a lot of carrots otherwise haha. Tonight's plan will be to get power and some basic machinery, sort out my food supply with farms (luckily I had tons of long grass to cut down/get seeds from so a good supply!) and then deal with mining and gather some more resources.
Still at vanilla stage to be honest but I'm slowly learning more and making progress.. I crafted a Machine Frame you guys!! Question: How on earth do you get Invar? I've looked at the recipe(s) in NEI but I can't make sense of them.. it's all gobbledygook.