Mozilla Thunderbird

I have decided to get firefox and thunderbird as I have heard so much about them, firefox is great! No more annoying click to activate things on flash, but I was wandering if anyone knew anywhere where I can get a free e-mail acount with pop3 protocol so I can use it with thunderbird?

I heard gMail had it but it doesnt let me get an activation code as I live in the UK, could someone send me a way of getting gMail or a different free one.