Thanks Sketchy... i did not realise my template rendered fine in InternetExploer, but not in Firefox.. this is where the problem is... surely every new designer of template_default must have encountered this, because its exactly the same problem with a fresh template with no changes. I will try your fix soon and let users know how i get on.
Also the Search Sidebox problem, again everyone must have experienced this... surely someone must know how to fix this??