This is not my experience at all! Are you finding it's lack of opportunity or lack of inclination?

Also, I just reread your original post: he's so illogical! What help is he to you saying he can't help you because the work you've done isn't right? In what circumstances IS he prepared to offer constructive help then?!

I was going to suggest what driven2insanity said. We got told to do this when I started my PhD, and also to make sure we had two supervisors. I never did it because I felt like I would look like I didn't trust my supervisor. Thank goodness she's great, but I feel like it ought to be something the universities practise, rather than putting the onus on PhD students who have more to lose if they make a bad impression on their new supervisor.
So yeah, maybe try taking minutes of the meeting and confirming everything with him in email form?

I'm working on narrative theory and the afterlife in modern/contemporary fiction. So, things to do with dead narrators, narrative time, spatial form representing eternity, repetition, postmodernism, post- everything in general, apocalypse, prolepsis, retIrospection. I'm writing about loads of different books and writers: I'm writing a chapter which uses examples from Orhan Pamuk and Alasdair Gray at the moment (it's about painting, linear perspective, mapping and the afterlife). I have so much trouble talking about my research!

Wow I can't believe how many other knitters there are! I cruise craftster.org a lot when I'm at my part-time job to get pattern ideas. I was thinking about making my supervisor something really fancy like a massive lace shawl for when I finish - I'm 18 months in to my PhD so I'm thinking I ought to start now to complete both together!

Ooh I've just started swimming too! I also knit (and read millions of knitting websites) when I'm procrastinating.

I'm addicted to reading books about academia or with academics in, although I've yet to find one where instead of sleeping with each other (and/or the students) they have long-running feuds about room-use, photocopying and how the law department upstairs steal all our admin staff and are allowed to spend all their time in the pub. I'm writing about Amy Tan's new book in my thesis!

"Are you going to work in your pyjamas during the summer?"
The answer to that is yes on all fronts. Except on naked wednesdays and bikini days, obviously.

My favourite is going home to my family and my dad saying to me (half-joking), "oh well when she was your age your mum had three kids..." Yes, but my mum also left school at sixteen with no qualifications whatsoever and barely gets more than the minimum wage even now. I feel like I need a mentor who can tell me what's normal. I partly want to emigrate so I don't have other people's expectations to worry about.

I'm studying for my PhD full time and I work 15 hours a week part-time (in a call centre - yay!), plus teaching (averaging about two hours a week realistic time commitment) in my department. I actually find I'm more productive and procrastinate less than when I was fully AHRC funded for my masters, although I do get quite stressed out come the end of term (like now) when I'm overwhelmed with email from my students.

Good luck

Are you female? I'm looking into applying to the British Association of Women Graduates for final year funding. If you've done your ug here you might be eligible?

I tried to look for a paper copy of the journal but my library doesn't have it. I think I'm going to send my stuff to the publishers of the journal with the editor's name on it, as a hopeless compromise.

thank you so much :)
good tip about getting the department to contribute some postage: they might actually do this if I ask tomorrow!

With the AHRC at least, if you apply in your second year (for your third year) they'll only give you one year's funding. It's not for three years from the date when you apply.