Hi, thanks for the quick and helpful comments.

The bike does fit me, and as far as I can tell it is a comfortable ride, though I've nothing else to compare it to.

Bianchigirll, the pics are indeed from after the tune up, perhaps I'm not as diligent with the scrubbing brush and sponge as I should be. The shop did replace the brake pads. The problem is that there is quite some resistance, or rather it feels as if the levers are spongy. The mechanic said some new dual pivots would be a good idea. Thanks for the tip on cleaning the rims. And nail polish, I had tried that but all I had at hand was glossy stuff which didn't quite work out, I presume they make matte nail polish, I'll ask my other half...

Perhaps I ought to have mentioned that the old 24t freewheel was replaced with a new 28t, this has helped a lot, though there are some hills so steep that I can't actually turn the cranks (maybe I'm just very week, but I'm a not-unfit 24 year old so hopefully it's not that!) It was the lbs mechanic who said that I really need a compact, though I like the idea of finding a smaller chainring, the cranks are Ofmega.

Thanks everyone for the help, I'm encouraged to make this work.