Thanks for the comments guys.
Agreed, its probably not the best thing to start with but I found the piece of timber and couldn't resist finding out what lay inside, got to say I wasn't disappointed !
Enjoy making it ... yes, immensely but not without quite a bit trepidation lol. Like I said, I'm used to working engineering (metal) lathes and without that background I might have thought twice. The more "hands on" wood machining I found very enjoyable and more "personal" if that's the right word.
Les, its definitely not Laburnum but it would be nice to know what timber it is, I'm fairly sure its the Fatsia, shrub type plant with very large leaves I mentioned What doesn't show in the photos so well is how yellow the timber is.
I do have a few more bits of it but most are split due to drying, they were destined for the log burner before I got the lathe !