Thanks a lot for the very helpful response. 
I'll certainly consider all your feedback.
I found the wallet address, like you said.
I'll look into online wallets, it makes sense to try that.
What would you say were the advantages of running the local client over anything web based? (at the speed it's going now, it's probably another 3-4 days.... at least.... I'm letting it run, but frankly at the moment it feels hopeless)
Edit: I opened an account at bitchain.info but it's got a different address than the one that's set up in my bitcoin-qt client.
I would prefer to have just one account. But there was no way of changing it on bitchain.info, that I could see.
I'll certainly consider all your feedback.
I found the wallet address, like you said.
I'll look into online wallets, it makes sense to try that.
What would you say were the advantages of running the local client over anything web based? (at the speed it's going now, it's probably another 3-4 days.... at least.... I'm letting it run, but frankly at the moment it feels hopeless)
Edit: I opened an account at bitchain.info but it's got a different address than the one that's set up in my bitcoin-qt client.
I would prefer to have just one account. But there was no way of changing it on bitchain.info, that I could see.