"Sorry madam, but I'm not a taxi"

We were coming to the end of the lesson, so I told my pupil to pull into the side of the road and park - I wanted to go through a few of the theory questions before we finished.

My pupil manoeuvred perfectly and we stopped outside a house. I had just started reading out a question when the front door of the house opened and a lady stepped out. She then came down the garden path, through the gate and walked towards my car. When she reached us she opened the back door and got in. My pupil and I looked at each other incredulously.

"Could you take me into town please." She said. Well, my pupil and I just couldn't contain ourselves and we burst into laughter. "What?" Said the woman. "What did I say that's so funny?" After a few seconds I managed to contain myself and replied, "I'm sorry madam, but this isn't a taxi it's an AA Driving School car." The poor woman then became very embarrassed and apologised before she hurriedly got out of the car and scuttled back into her house.

My pupil and I tried to carry on where we left off but somehow we couldn't quite get into it again so we decided to call it a day. Just as we were about to drive off, a real taxi pulled in behind us and the lady came out again – this time walking very fast – and jumped in the back. We waited until they had gone pass us before we set off - smiling from ear to ear.

Steve Jackson, AA Driving Instructor