Hi JayJay - my baby is almost 6 months and exlusively breastfed and I mostly followed Gina Ford. Her first week thing of waking to feed every 3 hours from 6am till midnight with 5mins etc. was great for me as it helped me not get very engorged at any time because I was feeding regularly. Also I tried what the hospital said of keeping the baby on there as long as he wanted and I got so sore. The 5 min thing is so your nipples can get used to it as they do get sore (even with correct positioning 
). i know a lot of people don't agree with this, but I found it worked really well. And yes she does mean it literally - for the first day, just 5 mins each side, second day 10, third day 15 etc.
However I REALLY would not recommend following her routine of 2 weeks plus unless you express as she says to, because if you don't express and only feed every four hours your breasts might not get stimulated enough, and baby might not grow properly. I didn;t want to express, so I ended up doing a 3hr feeding routine from 7am till 11 at night (like Baby Whisperer says) until he slept through the night at about 6 wks, and then gradually moved to a four hour routine and onto Gina Ford's timings. If you start with every four hours at the beginning, some babies and mums seem to do OK from what I've heard, but some just don't get their supply stimulated enough and their milk supply drops, and the baby doesn't get enough to eat. Always remember to check signs like lots of wet nappies, yellow poos, gaining weight and if there is any problem, feed more often and scrap the routine!
Also she does mean to establish routines while in hospital with the 5mins the first day etc.
You can def. succeed without an electric expressing machine as I have never touched a breast pump , but what she's saying is if you're going to express every day long term then its easier to keep it up with one of those. The main reason she says to use an expressor is because when a growth spurt comes along, which happens quite a bit in the first 3 months, then normally you would need to feed more often which means the routines go out the window. But if you are expressing then you can simply reduce the amount you express, leaving more milk for the baby and the routines stay in place. To be honest I didn't find it made too much difference scrapping the routines for a few days while I fed him more often.
If you're looking at doing a routine I would go woth baby whisperer for the first two months while using practical tips from GF like nap times and how to wakre them up for the late night feed, and then go onto GF after that.
I found breastfeeding a lot harder than I thought, as there are so many complicated issues, but the main thing is if it looks like the baby is not getting enough, feed him more often.
I hope that helps, if you have any more questions you're welcome to e-mail me - I can post my e-mail address if you want.