Fast migration from MacBook Pro to MacBook Air

Hello
I have ordered a MacBook Air and will migrate from my battered MBP15 mid-2009. I understand the process and software sides well but I have two hardware questions:
1) Migrating to an SSD
Folk wisdom when migrating to a spinning hard disk is to start with applications because they will install on hte outside of the disk first and will therefore read faster. Obviously SSD not being a spinning device this doesn't apply but are there similar tips to extract maximum performance from an SSD?
2) Using Thunderbolt on the MBA
I cannot use the MBA's ethernet/USB adapter because my USB port is broken on the MBP15. I have looked everywhere for Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 or even 400 adapters and none are for sale (even if Apple claims they are as at teh bottom of this page ...
So I'm stuck using over the air migration... One thing I have thought about can be as follows:
- Start up MBP15 in T mode
- Wire it to a FW800 drive with multiple interfaces
- Hook the drive to the MBA. With a bit of luck both volumes should mount
Anybody has used something similar? Other ideas?
Many thanks
François

Thanks for the tips. There is actually a 3rd question...
I was thinking of doing a clean install as I have not done one for almost 10 years! I have issues of general speed, probably lots of junk files and specifically Safari bringing my machine to a complete stop (uninstalling/reinstalling has done nothing). It would obviously be faster to use setup assistant first to install the apps and then do a manual migration of my user files.
How confident should I be that the apps migration will be 'clean' and that a lot of the garbage will be left behind?
Also, what are those Gigs of 'other files' which are neither apps nor user data? - Obviously fonts, but what else? Worth migrating or leave behind (and then search manually)?
I am asking because I did a true clean install last month and it took about a week until I had full confidence that nothing had been missed...

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Fast migration from MacBook Pro to MacBook Air

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