Yes well you have to start somewhere with learning all this!! I only learned what diodes did this morning :) To be honest I'm suprised I got as far as I did without encountering trouble being that I had zero previous electrical knowledge! I guess the ability to follow directions counts for a lot.
Most importantly, I think the multimeter at home is broken because I just borrowed one at work and got completely different (sensible) readings following exactly the same process I did at home! Even the reading from just the AC Adapter is drastically different.
And changing from AC to DC does make the rest of the post-diode readings sensible also.
I may be a poor trades(wo)man but I'm now confident that the tool was broken too! ;)
Thanks again and I'll keep you updated on if it works!