Portfolio site -- a few HTML/CSS questions (help please!)

[Defrag]

Firstly I should preface this by saying I've not touched a line of HTML in 4+ years and I've been picking up CSS as I go (i.e. I know very little). If I've done things in a dumb way, then let me know how to improve it and I will do so! This post is primarily about asking for advice on how to fix the IE problems, but if you have any comments on the layout etc. I will happily read those, too.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~msimp2k2/portfolio/

CSS & HTML Help

I thought everything was grand when I was looking at it in Firefox, but then I opened it in IE and it was... a mess. Anyway, I managed to sort out many of the problems, but some remain, namely:

1. There's a gap between the banner image and the navigation bar in IE. No idea why.

2. The navigation bar has crappy padding in IE (there's too much space below the nav text which makes the bar too big)

3. Text is a bit different (subtle but it's there). From what I gather, there's no way to fix this.

4. Padding on the images. In IE they're really close together, whereas in firefox they're spaced as intended.

5. Alignment of thumbs. In firefox they're nicely centered by using automatic left & right margins. In IE, they're left justified. Sucky.

If anyone can help me by explaining why these problems are happening and how I can fix them, I would appreciate it.

Content / Layout

I'm still working on the content & layout, but I'd rather get the kinks worked out first before I refine the content. I'm still toying with the CV stuff etc. I might just move that to a separate page and leave a very brief summary at the top (or maybe make it collapsible so it's hidden to start with). I haven't uploaded any of the files or images to my website, either, so none of the content will open if you click the links. I've not really scrutinised the content to the nth degree, so I'll probably remove some of the weaker map shots, too ('samey' HL2 stuff and some of the HL stuff). I need to retake some of the screenshots with better AA & AF, anyway.

I'll probably mess with the site a bit more depending on the jobs I apply for, too (i.e. place focus on different content depending on whether it's a programming or level design job -- currently I'm aiming at being a programmer so that's at the top). Once all that's done, I'll buy a domain & some hosting.

Any help / comments / suggestions appreciated, cheers.