easy way to check water pump, drive it, it will soon get to 100deg+
is the bottom hose supposed to get hot? i thought the bottom hose will only get warm if the thermostat is open. can only assume that your stat didnt open because it didnt get hot enough...
pretty hard to get an air lock, take cap off expansion tank and give the engine a bit of a rev, thats the usual way to get any air bubbles out, however, again id assume that if there was an air lock the car would proberbly over heat.