Cpan problems - messed up cpan?

[Emma Kane]

I'm having problems with Cpan, I'm new to this and I think I've messed  
something up. I have installed a couple of modules ok, including  
LWP::UserAgent which I just installed as per the default install, I now  
know this can cause problems. I'm now trying to install SOAP::Lite and  
get this error

mkdir /Library/Perl/5.8.1/XML/Parser: Permission denied at  
/System/Library/Perl/5.8.1/ExtUtils/Install.pm line 177

Force install doesnt work either. Then attempting to install  
XML::Parser to fulfill any prerequisites gets

running install for module XML::Parser
Running make for M/MS/MSERGEANT/XML-Parser-2.34.tar.gz
Warning: You are not allowed to write into directory  
"/Users/emma/y/sources/authors/id/M/MS/MSERGEANT".
    I'll continue, but if you encounter problems, they may be due
    to insufficient permissions.
Fetching with LWP:
   
http://cpan.hambule.co.uk/authors/id/M/MS/MSERGEANT/XML-Parser 
-2.34.tar.gz
LWP failed with code[500] message[Cannot write to  
'/Users/emma/y/sources/authors/id/M/MS/MSERGEANT/XML-Parser 
-2.34.tar.gz-3477': Permission denied]

As you can see my default module directory is called y as I just hit Y  
during setup. Sigh. How can I fix this?

Many thanks
Emma