Under pressure

Some of you may remember my recent post on Juanita Phillips book.  Well one of my lovely friends has located me a pressure cooker to try out.  Only it comes without an instruction manual and I think there are some parts missing?  I am wondering now, you see it is my birthday in a few days, maybe I can use birthday money to buy a brand new electric model.  Lets face it I am more than a little petrified to try out the older model with no experience whatsoever in this type of cooking!  What do you think, should I buy one like this fancy newer model?  Any advice welcome blog readers...