think of photography as a ' contact sport ' ,
by this i mean that you have to activly get out there and take pictures of the things you like, as they aint gona jump into your camera,
i dont mean this in any nasty way but you have to be active, if you get out of the car and walk over to the fence over the road and your pictures would be at least 10x better and you will fill the frame with your subject, after this happens you can start ' tweeking ' your technique for improvement.
i know it can be intimidating standing there taking pics knowing someone might be watching you, but it really is the only way to get started, and its you getting the better pictures, not them
at 3.3meg your camera is fine for the moment, especially with a 3x zoom,
"thanks for any advise folks as i havent a clue what half these functions do ."...............well , the only way round that is to press every button in as many situations as possible and experiment, lets face it , it wont cost any money to do so like it would with a film camera , and peeps new to digital photography dont take nearly as many pictures as they should.
i hope this goes some way to improve your photography aand please take this in the spirit it is meant.
MyPix