Second hand first, there is no way you can get away from this hand, and probably no way for you to push him out either since he has the second nut flush draw.

First hand is a little hard to judge on without actually being there. First why are you unaware that blinds went up, do they not announce them? Are the tournaments there run poorly? Do they have an electronic posting of the blinds or what? Most likely there is some way that they communicated the blinds went up. Not trying to be mean but you missed it for some reason, maybe you were talking to someone, watching TV, etc. It's a shame, but your raise was legal for that level and I think it should stick too.