OK Llanfair, I'll answer your question! My instructor is VERY much my friend, and since he coaxed me through my Skills Test at East Mids FS a couple of years ago, he has also become a good pal too. We still fly together from time to time, firstly because he's a bloody good instructor and I never stop learning from him, and secondly because we have a damned good laugh! Strange though, I still have to buy the bacon butties wherever we go, though he does handle the radio which he thinks is the quid pro quo!!
Oh yes, and I still have to pay for the aeroplane too!!