I have indeed been running Adaware AND Spybot (the latter catches some stuff Adaware doesn't, use it too)... but this morning downloaded ZoneAlarm Suite and detected two viruses which I think have been flooding me with spyware. The machine seems to be clean now, and is running much faster, and ZoneAlarm proper can block access to the internet from programs such as spyware trying to use your connection to track your browsing etc.
What a pain in the ass though!
The rib is slowly getting better too...

... just gotta remember not to... oh, never mind...