-

Thanks for the comments re the Menu – so if I do this will it affect the desktop version too?

Yes, of course, there is always only one menu, for desktop version and mobile

Or is there a way to force this theme to provide the mobile version to tablets? Failing that I’ll try to do as you suggest though it looks complicated lol!!

No, and normally it’s not necessary.

How do I get my blog posts to NOT show metadata such as number of comments, tags, admin name etc?

Please go to WordPress admin -> Appeanrance -> Theme Options -> General -> Extra CSS Content and add this css code:

.blogentry_aside {
display:none !important;
}