Journalist Joanna Quinn's New Year's Resolution is to learn to drive - and after receiving her provisional driving licence, she's had her first lesson.

And not content that learning to drive is a big enough challenge; the Bristol Evening Post reporter will also be giving readers a regular update on her progress.

Joanna has signed herself up with Keith's School of Motoring, and driving instructor Bob Dean, who says he "never loses his rag".

Her first lesson began with a 'cockpit drill', making sure she was comfortable, and after checking the head rest, mirrors, seat-belt and seat, Bob talked Joanna through the controls of the car.

Then came something she hadn't been expecting on her first lesson - driving on the road with other cars.

She said: "It seems obvious now - of course you have to learn how to drive by driving on the road with other cars, but somehow I expected to learn in some distant car-free, road-free paradise."

And that's where the fun began.

"It was a bit scary actually," said Joanna.

"Especially when I had to pull out on to the road for the very first time and I was still trying to remember the gear-gas-clutch-indicator-handbrake-biting point thing.

"I just crawled out like a snail, causing instant tail backs to Weston."

But once she got going, her gear changes were pretty good, and hours spent in computer arcades as a teenager meant her steering was reasonable.

She said: "I found stopping a little more tricky - the necessary clutch/brake combo was confusing. But whenever I got some open road and started getting faster and feeling confident, I loved it so much I kept forgetting to look in mirrors."

Her second lesson was even more stressful, as Joanna held up the traffic while hesitating at junctions and stalling the car on a number of occasions - usually with a queue of traffic right behind her.

Practising right hand turns also meant she kept putting the windscreen wipers on instead of the indicator, in a slapstick fashion.

She said: "Due to the heady combination of facing both mortality and humiliation, I found that my hands sweated buckets during the lessons and I had to keep wiping them on my trousers.

"After two hours, I was exhausted and my legs were shaky. I think this is mainly because they were constantly tensed, hovering over the pedals, which were still moving about unexpectedly at crucial moments.

"I returned home feeling like Elvis after a marathon Vegas gig - perspiring and with vibrating thighs. But, as Bob keeps saying, it's not as easy as it looks, this driving caper.

"I just keep thinking of all the really stupid people I know who can drive and reassuring myself that one day, God and Bob willing, I will stand, or rather move, among them."

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