Thanks everyone. I managed to get out at 1930 after waiting for eyes to adjust. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to see and managed to get them all.
The orion nebula is so far my favourite, I see two bright stars and a smudge around it. Looks preety good in binos so assume would be even better in a scope.
Also really like looking at vega, it's like a Xmas tree light twinkling away in few colours.
The pleiades were good too but quite close to the moon.
I was disappointed with M31 however, I've been looking for it for a while and it was just a large smudge with not much to pick out . Compared to the orion nebula it didn't really compare. Would it have been affected by the bright moon?
Thanks again for all the advice. I had to tap out after half and hour was just too baltic..... A wimp I know!!