Hey, I always go and have a natter with my supervisor. She usually comes round with an invitation to the coffee room :-) It's really good. Although I think we find it really easy because we are both in a science lab and annoyingly in my department there are very few girls. So in answer to your second question, I think it definitely helps having the same gender supervisor.

My first supervisor is really cool. We get along really well and she's good at explaining things. My academic supervisor on the other hand... don't go there! I'm not sure what they get out of it? Does anyone know? Possibly a good reputation? IF they get good results the I guess it should make it easier for the supervisors to get funding for different projects.

I had a supervisor who got agitated a lot. It made it hard because you always hesitated before asking him anything incase it is a stupid question. In the end, it gets to the stage where you don't ask anything. Not good :-(