Wednesday’s lesson wasn’t the three-point-turn fest originally planned as my instructor decided that after a few sessions pottering around town practising stopping and starting and turning left and right at junctions, it would be good to get out on the ‘open road’ for a bit.

We hit the back roads out of town and I had to negotiate a couple of big roundabouts and various junctions with ‘proper’ traffic. I was a bit nervous at first but got braver as I found, once again, my feet seemed to know what they were meant to be doing without my help. I even rescued myself from stalling at one point.

I broke 50mph on the bypass outside of town which felt a bit like hyper-drive after mostly going at about 20mph for the last two weeks! I am getting the hang of changing gear smoothly now although I do have a habit of forgetting what gear I’m in which isn’t overly useful.

I found the lesson useful for getting to grips with how big the car is and how much space it takes up on the road – there were a few narrow bits in town and I had to squeeze past a 4×4 and trailer that had no intention of slowing down for anyone despite being in a place with lots of people (it almost piled into the back of a car behind us – idiot).

It was good to get out on the road with faster-paced traffic – a little terrifying at times – but by the end of it I felt better about how much I have learned. I didn’t think much had changed since the first lesson where I pootled around the back roads for my assessment, but actually there has been a massive difference.

Next lesson will be back to doing manoeuvres in town I think, still lots left to learn. I need to have a read through of the highway code again, too. Just to refresh my memory a bit.