I'm not mechanically minded and too some this may appear a stupid question.

I was having smoke and decided to start the car. After about 10 minutes I noticed the occasional white wisp of smoke coming out the exhaust. I have been having performance issues with the car and thought that's strange and looked at the exhaust and noticed what I thought was fuel sitting collecting in the exhaust tip lip. I ran my finger around the lip and it was wet. It was odourless in smell and when I put my finger further into the exhaust It was wet also.

I have seen cars (old and new) especially when they first start up have a white vapour emitting from the exhaust. I assume that fuel contains some vapour and as the car heats up it emits in the occasional wisp of white smoke. Is this correct? I know it rained today and originally thought that the moisture may have collected today but the car was parked completely under cover.

Is this normal?? Could it perhaps be something more sinister in light of my performance issues? e.g head gasket etc

h20 and co2 out of exhaust is a sign of perfect combustion. after the cat converter converts the exhaust gasses, in theory, these should be the only 2 by products, possibly a small amount of n2

I presume you are wondering if your headgasket is blown

If the car is taking a long time to 'crank into life' and is not performing well/loss of power when going up hills then i'd say it has (presuming you've checked sparkplug condition etc.)
Plus what are you oil and water levels like is one dropping quite quick? also is the oil turning a sort of cream colour?

As for 'steam'/condensation from the exhaust on a damp cold day this is not a certain sign of a blown headgasket.

Also you did not say what version of Corolla or engine version you have?

Another way to check if your head gasket may be blown, is after you car has completely cooled down (in the morning is usually the best as it has prob sat for a few hours) get a helper, lift the bonnet, start the car and then CAREFULLY take the radiator cap off.

Get your helper to look into the radiator, if there are bubbles present in the radiator (you may need to rev the engine slightly making sure that the helper does not look directly into the radiator and keeps their face a good distance from the opening at all times), there is a chance you may have a blown head gasket. Another sign is if your car goes through a lot of radiator fluid.

That covers what I can think of that is easy to do at home.

I hope my first post is a helpful one

welcome to the forum Superdave. What part of Brisvegas are you in? Look forward to meeting you at an upcoming event if you can make it!!