If you want to see what Postgres is upto you could try pgmonitor
http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/pgmonitor/projdisplay.phpIt will show you what your pg processes are upto and give you some idea of the load they are imposing although his choice of colours leaves a lot to be desired.
Whilst we are about it pgadmin3 http://www.pgadmin.org/pgadmin3/index.php is also useful for running speed test queries on remote db's etc.
- Steve