Thought I'd update my thread. Found a FIX
Seems theres a problem with excels latest version in page layout view if you have a HP printer driver installed on your macbook. Way around this without uninstalling your printer is to use normal view instead and go into excel preferences and tell it to open also in normal view instead of page layout. Works very quickly and smoothly then!
0 complaints from me since I discovered this
Well it looks much nicer at least! Thanks for that, never could understand why it looked so bloody awful out the box.