I knew my date before I submitted just because the people attending were busy professors and so it took time to get an agreed date which they all could make, I don't know how typical this is though!

The thing is you can't second guess what the examiners will concentrate on - if you already know who they will be then read some of their published work to see what they have written about their methods, that will give you an indication of where they are coming from. It may be the case that you just have to do this work to please your adviser and sometimes it is better to go with what they say to keep the relationship plain sailing.

My study utilised mixed-methods so I had to talk about it for the quantitative element, the methodology can be a tricky chapter to write depending on your study and the methods used, so well done for getting this far. Letts et al. (2007) provide a nice summary of the issues in relation to qual research.

Rigour in qualitative studies is critical. While in quantitative research one discusses concepts
such as reliability and validity, qualitative researchers argue for the use of different
terminology when determining the rigour of a qualitative study (Guba & Lincoln, 1989;
Krefting, 1991; Taylor, 2000). The overarching concept when considering rigour is
trustworthiness.

http://www.srs-mcmaster.ca/Portals/20/pdf/ebp/qualguidelines_version2.0.pdf

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Validity is a key concept in research but it depends on your study how much depth you have to go into, for example, if you were developing/administering a questionnaire it is essential to talk about both validity and reliability.