THERE are many milestones dotted along our driving careers.

The first lesson in a car? Frightening.

The first test? Far more frightening.

The second test (in my case with an examiner in the back seat examining the examiner in the passenger seat)? Entirely petrifying.

The first lesson with your child, without the benefit of dual controls or a parachute? Utterly horrifying and traumatic.

But like all our life experiences, every day is a school day and we learn from the many and varied shocks and thrills that punctuate our daily driving.

Unlike my wife and our writer Nicky Findley, I have not had the benefit of the driver awareness course.

Admittedly, this is more to do with the speed I was travelling when the camera took a photo rather than the clean driving licence I wish I possessed.

(It should also be noted that a grovelling letter pleading with them to allow you to join the course may not work either).

Either way, thousands of people have undertaken the course and if my wife and Nicky Findley are typical delegates, there is much to be learned and digested.

Indeed, my wife’s passenger seat diatribes against my driving habits are often referenced, with almost mind-numbing regularity, by this very course.

As our feature today asks: would I pass my test if I took it today, 35 years after I ripped up my L plates?

Of course I would.

My driving is exemplary, my attitude to other road users considerate, my ability to second-guess dangers ahead pin sharp.

The trouble is, like so many drivers out there, I then start the engine.