Guys, a little bit of help would be appreciated.

Already upgraded my client to 1.5, but it is still not syncing completely with the blockchain, it intermittently reports that there are another 5-6k blocks that need to be synced. This disappears after awhile.

1) Will this go away after block 317,000? Or is it something completely independent?
2) Will adding/updating the nodes help?
3) I was previously mining on miners-pool.eu and currently there is a huge chunk of coins which I have yet to receive. Is there a way to ensure I get these coins before block 317,000?

I apologize if I have any of the concepts down incorrectly.

Also, three cheers to Artos for trooping along to make SBC a success! Give the guy a medal already!

P.S. At present, these are the nodes that I have


Please help!