In this game, a 24k accepted, and played what looked like a very conservative first move, so I made the rookie mistake of thinking “Oh, I can be experimental”.
This was quicky punished by death 
However, what I’d like help with is just the first 16 moves.
At move 8 I was “Oh, crap, now what?”
At move 16, I felt like advice I’d read was to come out straight, but I could not resist the knight. Was that a right instinct?
These are the two big questions, but all input very much appreciated.
Thanks.
Just three moves.
Thanks! The suggestions you made are great, and interestingly other than approaching the 3-4 I didn’t even think of them at the time.
(I didn’t approach the 3-4 because I wrongly thought it would give black the right hand side).
I hope you are aware you have not died in the end. 
mark5000 did some comments about the opening, so let me just comment on the end position.
But honestly the fact that you are trying to reason about your position rather than play moves blindly bodes well for your go future 
Yeah - it’s time for me to learn to recognise seki, that’s clear. At the time I knew there was the possibility, but I think my brain went “gah, too hard, I’m dead”
Your continuations show that there is wisdom in what someone said “don’t freak out, don’t give up”.