Four months in and all I seem to be doing is admin stuff rather than actual research. I am filling in a skills audit; finding and signing up for training courses; spending ages finding and booking hotels and filling in forms for study visits; filling in more forms; setting up software for data storage; going to meetings; I suppose you have to do the groundwork first before you can get started.
Is this normal? I haven't looked at a book in days! (apart from Yellow Pages; Travelodge Guide etc!!)

Yeah, that's perfectly normal at the begining. I think all the 'graduate key-skills' malarky is a pretty recent thing. I think the research councils want the next generation of postgrads to be more well-rounded, with so called 'transferable skills'. This basically means you get less time to do your actual research - much to the dissaproval of your supervisor.

It is pretty sh***y, but its something all postgrads have to put up with these days. It'll be like this for the first 4, maybe 5 months.

Hope you find some solace in the fact that its NOT YOUR FAULT!!

I always try to have a list of 3 or 4 things to do, and at least 1 of them is more related to administration than to actual research. Thus if I get tired of writing a chapter or reading papers, I can always go to travel websites and plan my trip to a future conference, or write or phone libraries and archives which I may need to use in the future to ask for opening hours etc. So I think it can be a good way of relaxing and having a break from more demanding tasks...