There are a plethora of various driving instructors, driving schools and training centres out there, all claiming to offer a quick route to success. But how do you ensure the one you choose will provide you with the best chance of passing your test? Each individual instructor has their own unique style, methods and personality, and it’s vitally important you choose one that will best suit you. So in a competitive market such as this, what do you look out for?

1. Personal Recommendations – In my opinion, the most important thing to consider whilst choosing a driving instructor. Ask members of your family, and friends who they learnt to drive with. It’s likely that they will have similar personalities to yourself, so if they found a particular instructor’s style and personality to be effective, there’s a high chance you will too.

2. Driving Test Pass Rates – Unfortunately, the DSA does not publish driving instructor pass rates. So whilst instructors may choose to quote a high pass rate at you in order to get you on board, the truth is that the legitimacy of these pass rates can be questioned. It’s also important to remember that success is rarely measured in a consistent fashion. Are they counting first time passes, second, surely everyone passes at some point?

3. Check What Grade They Are – Do all driving instructors teach to the same the standard? The answer to this question is no, and this is why. Some larger multi-car driving schools will use potential driving instructors, or PDI’s to teach students. Whilst they are not qualified, they are allowed to charge for lessons, however you most likely won’t be told they are PDIs. Once instructors are qualified a grade system applies, which is regularly monitored by the DSA. These grades range from 1-6, most UK driving instructors are graded 4.

4. Are they friendly? – There is no denying learning to drive can be a stressful experience. Taking this into account, it’s vital you have a driving instructor who is patient and makes you feel at ease when behind the wheel. As with any profession, different people adopt different methods. Some instructors may try to chat with you, which is a great way to help you relax behind the wheel, whilst others may opt to keep the small talk to a minimum in order not to draw your attention away from the road. It’s important to gauge which of these tactics brings out the best driver in you, and choose an instructor accordingly.

5. Cost – Seldom is the cheapest driving instructor the best. It’s a simple fact that everybody has a budget, and we will all naturally make decisions based on price. However, these people will be responsible for teaching you one of the most important skills you will ever learn, and it’s important they are good at what they do so that you are safe.  Another thing to consider is do they do discounted block bookings?

Obviously we all want to pass our test and get out on the road ASAP. To do this it’s important we find the driving instructor that is best suited to our needs. As well as taking the above into consideration, it’s also important to keep other questions in mind:

Will you have the same car for every lesson?

How old are the cars?

Do they do 1 hour and 2 hour lessons?

Do they work weekend?

Can you be picked up from work or school etc?

Here is yet another Christmas recipe for you to feast your eyes upon and try out at home. And this week’s recipe comes from our very own Rosie Williams, who is one of our Web Platform Managers.

This cracking festive stuffing recipe takes around 40 minutes to prepare, and an hour to cook and it will serve six people. This is pretty much the perfect stuffing to include in your Christmas dinner.

Here we go…

1. To begin you should preheat your oven to 190C/375F and then lightly line the base and sides of a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Place the lentils in a bowl and cover them with cold water. Then, you should place the nuts, carrot, red onion garlic, celery and chestnut mushrooms in a food processor and process until roughly chopped.

3. Next up you should melt the butter in a large frying pan and fry the shiitake mushrooms for 2-3 minutes. Then you add the nut mixture to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring, until it has softened slightly. Once softened you should stir in the tomatoes, breadcrumbs, ketchup and tomato paste and then cook this all for a couple of minutes.

4. Remove this pan from the heat and then add the herbs, the beaten egg and the seasoning. You should then drain the lentils and add them to the mixture. Season again and spoon the mixture into the loaf tin you prepared earlier and level the surface. Place the tin in the oven and bake for one hour, covering it with buttered foil or greaseproof paper halfway through cooking if necessary.

5. Whilst the loaf is cooking you should make the sauce. Heat the oil in afrying pan and fry off the onions, chilli, garlic and cranberries for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the cranberries pop. Then you stir in the sugar and wine and cook this over a low heat until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed. Then you should stir in the stock and Worcestershire sauce and season it to taste.

6. Once cooked, remove the nut loaf from the oven and stand it, in the tin, for about ten minutes before turning it out. Then peel off the lining paper and serve. It is best served cut into slices with the warm cranberry sauce. Delicious…

Picture: Prettyinprint

Christmas isn’t even here yet, so it may be a bit early to start thinking about the new year. But, 2013 is looming, and the New Year means a fresh start and a new slate for a lot of people. New Year’s Eve sees plenty of alcohol consumed; food eaten and fireworks let off; whilst Jools Holland plays Boogie Woogie in the background. And the next day hangovers are felt; resolutions are set and the cleansing process begins.

So, if you need a little help heading into the new year, we are here to help. Here are some ideas of ways that you can prepare for 2013.

Sell all of your unwanted belongings
There is nothing more cathartic than getting rid of all of your old tat that you haven’t had any use for since 1995. If you have a large number of items that you feel the urge to get rid of then why not do just that in time for the New Year? You can get rid of all of those old Robot Wars VHS tapes; sell all of your old furniture that is cluttering the spare room; and clear your wardrobe of all of your neglected items of clothing. You can get rid of these items by setting up a stall at a car boot sale, or, you can just put everything up for sale on Friday-Ad. This way, you can sell all of your unwanted possessions from the comfort of your own home. Just because you don’t have any use for these items doesn’t mean that no one else will. If you put something on Friday-Ad, someone is bound to want it. Something you deem to be useless, could be just the thing someone else is after. So, cleanse your home of unwanted belongings and make a little bit of money on the way.

Make a New Year’s Resolution
You could go for one of the more traditional resolutions – lose weight, quit smoking, go on a diet – or, you could set yourself a more avant garde New year’s Resolution. My friend Colin, for example, set himself the task of inventing something new before the end of the year. Now, I am not suggesting that you attempt to do this one, as Colin was drastically unsuccessful. His attempt at inventing a new colour was not only flawed from the start, but he also sunk a lot of his money into it, his girlfriend left him and he lost his job at The Co-op (it will not surprise you to hear that Colin’s resolution for 2013 is to get a job). But you can veer from the norm and set yourself a challenging yet different resolution. Why not try and learn a new language? Or, you could learn to cook or bake. The possibilities are endless.

Get a new hobby
Hobbies are good fun, and they allow you to learn new skills as well as socialise with others. It’s a New Year, so why not start something new to mark the occasion? You could join a local sports team or decide to go swimming more often. Or, if you fancy trying something a bit more creative, then you could do a more arty and crafty hobby. You could get a potter’s wheel and make vases or teapots for example, or start painting – I don’t know it really is up to you. If you are looking for a new hobby but aren’t sure what to go for, then why not check out the Community and Leisure section on Friday-Ad, it is full of local societies and other bits and bobs that might inspire you when it comes to finding your new pastime.

Here are a few hobbies that I have considered in the past but never gotten around to, they might be of help to you:

• Tightrope walking
• Dog walking
• Learn the Moonwalk
• Power walking

Treat yourself
Christmas will have just finished and you are then thrusted head first into the New Year. Some people will be starting their new diets, others will be agitated and angry as they try to survive without cigarettes and others will hungover from the festive period. Now, you could do all of the above. Sure, you could make a resolution or sell all of your old bits and bobs, but if these options don’t appeal to you, then you could just go out and buy yourself present. A big one! Go on, you deserve it. Why not buy a better car in January and kickstart the year in style? Or you could always go on holiday? Friday-Ad can help you with both of these and more. Take a browse of the site, find what you are after, and treat yourself. You know you deserve it.

Here is another brilliant Christmas Recipe brought to you from Friday-Ad. This splendid stuffing recipe belongs to Alison Clements, a member of our content team. Alison spend all day writing across a number of our websites, and it seems she makes a pretty tasty stuffing too.

This festive stuffing has hints of sharpness, and the fruity cranberries add colour and flavour to your traditional Christmas dinner. If you’re serving lots of people on the big day it might be worth making double the amount and cooking in a separate dish so you don’t run out when serving up.

So, here it is…

1. Zest and juice the orange, placing both the zest and the juice in a heavy based saucepan. Add the cranberries to the orange and bring to simmering point on a moderate to high heat. Then Cover.

2. Turn the heat down slightly and simmer for five minutes. Once the five minutes are up you need to add the butter (in slices) and stir it in, off the heat, until it melts.

3. Once the butter has melted, you add the breadcrumbs and the eggs, beaten. Next up, season your mixture generously with salt and pepper and a decent grating of fresh nutmeg.

4. Before you add the stuffing to the turkey, make sure you weigh it, as you will need to count it into the final cooking time. Then, you simply stuff the turkey with the stuffing and cook it accordingly.

This is a beautifully festive stuffing that is sure to please on the big day. The orange gives it a zingy flavour and the colourful cranberries make it look as good as it tastes.

In the lead up to Christmas we thought that we would get some of our members of staff here at Friday-Ad, to let you in on some of their best Christmas recipes. There are loads of cracking Christmas recipes out there, but we think that we have got some of the best around. First up is Nicky Wilmshurst, our wonderful designer.

Nicky makes beautiful designs every day in the office for a number of our websites, but she can also make some pretty beautiful Christmas shortbread. So, here is Nicky’s brilliant recipe for some lovely shortbread that you can eat at Christmas time along with a lovely mug of hot tea…

You will need some equipment. In order to make this lovely shortbread you will need a mixing bowl and wooden spoon; a sieve; a seven inch cake tin; a palette knife; a fork; a baking tray and a cooling tray.

So, now we are ready to begin.

1. First off, before you begin, you should always preheat the oven. For this recipe, you will need your oven at gas mark 4 or to 150 degrees C. Once you have switched the oven on and got it heating up, you can start to make your shortbread.

2. Sieve the flour and sugar into the mixing bowl and then cut up the margarine. You should then add the margarine into the flour and sugar mixture and proceed to rub it into the flour. You should do so until it goes past the breadcrumb stage and forms a lovely dough.

3. Next up, you should lightly grease your cake tin and once done, you should then place your dough into the tin and press it out. Once flat, you should smooth it over and mark it into eight portions.

4. Once you have portioned your dough up, you should use a fork to decorate the edge and then prick it all over. This allows any steam to get out of the dough during the baking process.

5. Place the tin in the oven and bake your dough for 20-30 minutes until it is lightly browned. Once it reaches this stage, remove it from the oven and leave it to cool. Once it has cooled and hardened you simply cut it into slices and sprinkle it with icing sugar.

The key to this delightful recipe is its simplicity. What is confusing, is how something so simple can taste so bloomin’ good!

We hope you have fun making this recipe at home and keep an eye out on the Friday Ad Blog for the next of our Staff Christmas Recipes.

Becoming a student can be tricky. Leaving home for the first time is hard enough without the daunting task of trying to adapt to a low-cost living lifestyle. We’ve all done it and learnt from our mistakes, now Friday-Ad is going to let you in on a few secrets to frugal living at University.

Top  Tips For Living Cheaply…

• Shop at pound stores for the essentials such as food items and toiletries.
• Use sites such as Friday-Ad to get freebies, such as clothes, bikes, books and furniture.
• Stop using public transport and walk or cycle everywhere. If you don’t have a bike, try and pick one up for next to nothing on Friday-Ad.
• Join local libraries which will help cut down on the amount of books you have to buy. If you have to buy the books then make sure you buy them second hand.
• Place a free ad on Friday-Ad offering free conversational English lessons in exchange for an evening meal or a few drinks. This way you’ll get to meet some amazing people and still feel like you’re getting paid.
• Download Skype so you don’t have to pay for long distance phone calls to your friends and family.
• Find out the times supermarkets reduce the price of products such as bread and stock up and freeze it if possible.
• Become a mystery shopper. It pays well and you get lots of nice freebies.

Car dealers in the UK have enjoyed their largest jump in sales for nearly two years, recent figures have revealed.

The sales in May 2012 were the largest in a long time as a total of 162,288 new cars took to the road.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) had their forecasts smashed by the figure that is up nearly 8% on May 2011.

Car dealers can be in a good mood thanks to this but it is also a welcome boost to the economy as the act of purchasing a new car is clearly a sign of confidence.

The rise was partly due to a 14% increase in sales to private buyers and companies have also been seen to show confidence as they have updated their vehicles – for example, fleet sales were up nearly 5% last month.

SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt told the BBC: “May’s 7.9% increase in new car registrations is good news for the motor industry and the UK economy.

“The consistent climb in new car registrations during the first five months of the year suggests that confidence is returning, despite financial uncertainty in the eurozone.”

The best selling car in that successful month was the Vauxhall Corsa, however, the Ford Fiesta remains the most popular car in the UK so far this year, with 50,507 sold in 2012 to date.

The UK automotive industry has an annual turnover of about £49bn, accounting for more than 10% of total exports, and employs 700,000 people.

Are you a car dealer who is interested in advertising your stock on Friday-Ad Motors? Contact us today on 01273 837855 to discuss your advertising requirements in more detail.

Picture: Stuart Chapman

Here at Friday-Ad Motors, we’ve been very busy improving the service that we offer to both buyers and sellers of cars.

You may have noticed that we’ve recently made some improvements to the site. We’ve given the site a fresher more modern look, and have introduced new features to make searching for a car to buy even easier.

Have these changes resulted in an improved quality of car buyer browsing the site? This is an important question to consider for sellers, as more relevant and higher quality buyers will translate into higher quality enquiries on sellers vehicles which in turn will significantly increase the chances of making a sale.

We can measure this quality using a variety of metrics:

• Average number of pages per visit – An increase in the number of pages made per visit is a sign of car buyers becoming highly engaged with the website’s content.
• Average visit duration – An increase in visit duration is a further indicator of car buyers becoming highly engaged with the website’s content.
• Bounce rate – Bounce rate is the number of single page visits made to the site. A decreasing bounce rate means fewer one page visits and more engaged car buyers.

We’ve trawled the web and have handpicked a selection of the funniest and most bizarre car videos for you. Check out the clip of David Coulthard catching a golf ball in a Merc, some nutters skydiving in car and the classic opening scene from the Italian Job. Enjoy…

David Coulthard catches 178mph golf ball in Mercedes-Benz SLS
In this clip, professional golfer Jake Shepherd and former F1 driver David Coulthard break the strange world record for the longest golf shot to be caught in a moving car. It is a brave man that tries to catch a rock hard ball that is moving at 178mph in a brand new Mercedes.

Skydiving in a car
An amazing video of four nutters in a convertible falling from the back of an aeroplane. Need I say more?

Opening scene from The Italian Job
When it comes to car-related films, there are few that have held there place in popular culture as well as this 1969 classic.

The trip with Steve Coogan – ‘We rise at daybreak’
OK, so not strictly a car-oriented video, but it is set in a car. This is a fantastic three minute clip from the excellent sitcom The Trip, featuring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Well worth a watch… Gentlemen to bed!

Senna – The official UK trailer
If you have not seen this film then you really should stop what you are doing, watch this trailer, head to your nearest video rental shop, rent this film and watch it. It is a moving and extensive account of the life and career of one of F1’s most endearing characters – Ayrton Senna.

Honda – The Cog
This is one of the most incredible car adverts of all time. Rube Goldberg directs this two minute clip of all the parts of the car interacting together in one long chain reaction. It really is amazing…

OK Go – Needing/Getting music video
Now, obviously we aren’t sure how authentic this video is, but still, it is pretty amazing. OK Go are almost more famous for their music videos than they are for their music, there is the treadmill one, the dancey one, and even the one directed by Rube Goldberg that is similar to the Honda advert above. And here is another prime example of what they can do, made in partnership with Chevrolet.

Bungee jumping car
Chevrolet literally ‘launched’ its newest small car, the Sonic – by tying the sub-compact to a bungee chord and rolling it off a ten-story structure at the Long Beach Convention Center. We have already had skydiving so now it is time for bungee jumping.

Are you a car dealer who is has questions about your account or are interested in advertising your stock on Friday-Ad Motors? Contact us today on Tel: 01273 837855 to discuss your advertising requirements in more detail.

So we’re all still nursing the injuries from England’s defeat at the hands of Italy in the quarter finals of Euro 2012. But fear not Friday-Ad fans! We’re keeping the spirit of football alive with our Friday Football Shirt Day and Keepy Uppy Challenge.

Okay, so, our Friday Football Shirt Day may have taken place before both the Ashleys let us down on Sunday night (I realise this isn’t strictly the case) but the video was just too good to keep to ourselves.

The highlight of the day was the Keepy Uppy Challenge. Adam Rowden from the Friday Media Group’s Content Team was crowned champion, clocking up an impressive 73 keepy uppies – unbelievable Jeff – closely followed by Jack Williams on 63.

How did Adam feel about this wonderful achievement? Well, in the words of his fellow Content Team member Sarah Furbank, it’s his greatest sporting achievement since having a stadium named after him on Football Manager.

The wooden spoon was awarded to Arren Wilkinson who, after hours and hours of practice only managed to clock up seven keepy uppies. That’s right, SEVEN. You might expect us to shun Arren after such a poor performance, but no. As Friday Media Group’s email guru Numan Ahmed pointed out, he’ll always be number one in our hearts.

Check out the video below and see the Friday Media Group Keepy Uppy Champions in action for yourself – as well as the beautiful array of football shirts. For more photos, head on over to the Friday-Ad Facebook page.