I sometimes get it wrong too.

I try stuff. And not everything I try works.

Usually, this doesn't matter too much. I try something else instead.

Yesterday evening though, things came together to make for one of the worse lessons I've even given.

It had actually been quite a good day. I had an early test, so I was up at half past six. My pupil passed. Another happy customer.

I should then have taught someone who I shall call Jan.

Jan has had some lovely lessons with me, but she's also struggled with nerves at times. She should have had her driving test today, but I felt she would be better off postponing it by a couple of weeks.

Jan had texted me earlier to put her lesson back to the evening instead, so I had a free couple of hours, then another driving test.

My pupil for this test also passed. 2 passes in one day is good going by any instructors standards.

Anyway, then I had the rearranged lesson with Jan, starting at about 5pm.

I had a vague idea that I wanted to get her driving outside her normal area, to see how well she would adapt. Unfortunately, getting her to drive outside her normal area, at rush hour, in the dark, was far more than she could deal with, and all I managed to do was to destroy her confidence.

Normally, at this point, I'd change things. Get her back in more familiar surroundings for a start. But I made more wrong decisions, and we ended up driving back along some pitch black country lanes.

Why? Well mainly it was because I was tired. I'd been up since 6.30 the previous day too, and I just wasn't thinking as well or as clearly as I usually do. Partly because we'd ended up in an area where I wasn't as accustomed to teaching. I know all the roads where we ended up, but not as naturally or as fluently as the roads around Wallasey. And sometimes the delay in working out a better way meant that we'd gone past the places where we could have gone a better way.

We got back, and I explained to Jan that the reason she'd had a bad lesson was because of the decisions I'd made, but that's going to be small comfort to her right now.