Me too, the insides of PIC's and microcontrollers make sense. Interfacing them to other things is where I have to end up googling.

I would love to have done A-Level electronics but my school didn't offer it. I'd love to do an evening class or part-time course in it, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the area and there doesn't appear to be 'one' place on the web to search for it.