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Not so long ago the best thing most people had to say about porridge was that it was cheap, but on Wednesday we learnt that Pret a Manger is selling 50,000 pots of it a week.

Of course it's not the only place to sell it but it is, they claim, a .

So what's the attraction? And which is the best way to make it: should you use sugar or salt, water or milk . . . ?

In search of answers Winifred spoke to Neal Robertson - of the Tannochbrae Tearoom in Auchtermuchty in Fife. He's the current world porridge making champion, the holder of the .

"Eat it standing up" was his most surprising piece of advice as it's "much better for your digestion". Oatmeal, water, sea salt and defiantly not made in microwave were his other tips.

We asked you for your recipes, and here they are:

Lyn Brown serves Luke warm with grated nutmeg and mixed dried fruit. Just put oats in a bowl add milk or dried milk and water and cook uncovered for about 4mins.

For Ghanaian style oats Joseph Hammond-Hagan uses oats, water, pinch of salt. Add sugar and evaporated milk to serve.

Andy Quarrie's method is one measure of oats, one measure of water and one measure of milk. Put cold into pan and bring to simmer until nice and thick. Add salt to taste. Eat with milk and Demerara sugar.

Theresa Reilly suggests one small cup of organic oats, 1 - 2 cups of apple juice and cook over stove. Add a few brazil nuts when serving.

Thom Axon's secret is adding chai spices (add a chai tea bag) and flaked almonds.

And Sheila Mitchell takes a more straight forward approach - she avoids the microwave but simply "follows the instructions on the pack."

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David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough and former Ö÷²¥´óÐã Secretary, asked us to pass this comment about DAB on to Laurence Harrison of Digital Radio UK - AS

I just caught the end of your interview in relation to digital.

It is simply not true that 90% of the country have what normal people would describe as 'coverage'.

I can get digital in north Derbyshire if I hold the radio up to the ceiling or I find the exact slot on the kitchen windowsill! In the rest of the house it won't work.

Other experiences (including in London) lead to what I can only describe as 'overload' so that the much vaunted 'higher quality' can only be obtained if the volume is turned right down!

Coupled with the idea that Radio 4 Extra is something brand new and not simply rebadged Radio 7, and we are all getting the impression that the listener is being treated as a fool!

Honesty, openness and a degree of humility - and patience in terms of getting this right - might win us over a little more than technical assertion or evangelical fervour.

Best wishes,

David Blunkett

• Listen again to the You & Yours item about digital radio in cars and leave a comment about your own experience.

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Do you get it? Digital radio that is. At You and Yours we'd love to hear your experience of digital reception - especially if you have a digital radio in the car. The question arises after our piece which arose after the news that Ford is planning to offer the digital radio as an option on all its cars and on some models as standard from next year. And all new cars should have a digital radio as standard by 2013 - two years earlier than was required of them.

But do consumers want DAB radios in their cars? Martin wrote to tell us he had a DAB radio fitted to his old car - but quickly went back to FM. "I didn't want 80 stations to choose from," he says.

Assuming you would like that choice, is it really available? Not according to Simon, who recommends a trip along the A470 from Cardiff to north Wales. "The radio works well at first," he says, but after less than 30 miles from Cardiff, the radio dies. "Then there is no signal until the north Wales coast - nearly 150 miles away."

Geoff says he drives four miles to the nearest town in Sussex and the digital radio gives up altogether - and Andrew complains that he can't even get an FM signal in Argyll and Bute let alone DAB. Simon says his DAB signal in Cumbria "frequently drops out altogether."

And Robert complains his car often suffers total signal loss in London - when he drives past buildings. "Analogue interference is tolerable as you can still hear something... but with digital you get nothing at all," he says.

Only Steve from Anglesey felt he could recommend a DAB car radio. Sceptics tried to stop him but he says:"Since having it, the only place it hasn't worked was the Conwy Tunnel."

New masts are going up to improve coverage - not sure they'll help in the Conwy Tunnel though - at the moment a DAB signal reaches around 90 per cent of the population - though, significantly for motorists that's not 90 per cent of the geographical area.

So let us know where your DAB coverage starts and ends - maybe we'll even draw up an informal, unscientific map. In the meantime the Ö÷²¥´óÐã does offer help with reception problems.

Andrew Smith is editor of You & Yours

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Getting a job can be a real uphill struggle in the current economic climate. But is it any harder if you have a disability? I have a stammer and whilst equal opportunities statements are all very well, realistically, do they actually count for anything? When rejecting a perfectly well-qualified applicant, it's very easy to trot out the phrase 'there was someone with more directly relevant experience than you'. Nobody will be any the wiser as to whether that is the real reason or not; it's impossible to prove. So in our ever more touchy-feely society, is having a disability in the current job market any less of a stigma now than it once was?

Looking at the evidence of my own struggle to change jobs, statistically, I should have got one by now - when compared to the experiences of my contemporaries. I have no other friends who have had the same number of interviews as me over such a long period of time (roughly 10 interviews in 2 years). You would think that this would therefore make me something of an expert. And, in a way, it does. Throw me any stock question and I can rattle off a solid answer: why do you want this job? What relevant experience/skills do you have...? And having run my answers past a number of people - including HR directors - I know my responses are robust.

The trouble may be my stammer, which can be quite severe at times. But we are constantly told by 'experts' that 90% of communication is non-verbal, so I have made sure that this other 90% is spot on. I present well; I shake hands firmly-but-not-too-firmly whilst maintaining eye contact; I express interest with my body language; I subtly mirror the interviewer's body language to illustrate subliminally that we are on the same wavelength; I come prepared with evidence of my skills; I have glowing references; I research the company to death and I try to exude self-confidence.

So my failure to win these jobs must mean that I am either:
A) not qualified for the job
B) not as qualified as other applicants
C) dropping the ball during the interview
D) up against someone already earmarked for the job
E) discriminated against because of my disability

The last thing I want to do is make it sound like sour grapes - that I would be a CEO were it not for my disability. But I have gone from being an academic high flyer at school, where I won a plethora of prizes, to someone who is professionally underachieving and underpaid and who sees his contemporaries earning megabucks. Admittedly, I did a Masters in music rather than business studies - but it was from a top-ten university rather than 'media studies' from the University of Northwest Dagenham.

I just can't shake the fact that interviewers might hear my stammer (and see the associated physical struggle which sometimes accompanies it), look again at the CV of someone as or marginally less well qualified than me and then go with that option because there is no underlying nagging concern about my ability. Or disability. In a way, stammering is more of a disability than many others, purely because every job these days requires 'excellent communication skills'. A wheelchair won't get in the way there, will it? Not that I am belittling any other disability, I hasten to add. But employers have a better understanding of other disabilities, whereas stammering appears to unsettle people. Therefore it is my belief that I have to work much harder than most people to convince interviewers that I am the right person for the job. Faster, better, stronger...

by Ashley Morrison - blogger, copywriter and editor
Listen to Ashley on job interviews
Read Ashley's previous blog

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