Abbey Foregate runs east from the English Bridge, and number 14 is on the abbey side between the chip shop and the barbers. From the station it is a seven-minute walk over the bridge; from the bypass, come off at Emstrey and follow signs for the town centre for a mile and a half. There is an hour of free parking in the Abbey Foregate bays outside and the big pay-and-display behind the abbey if you want longer. If you are coming for a first lesson you do not need to come to the office at all — say where you would like to be collected and the car will be there. Bring your provisional licence to the first lesson, or a photograph of it if the card is somewhere safe; we have to see it once and never again.

Enid reads every message between lessons and replies the same working day, usually within a couple of hours. You will get an honest answer about how long the wait is for the slot you want — currently two to three weeks for weekday daytimes and rather longer for after school — and two or three specific times to choose from rather than "we will be in touch". Nothing is booked until you confirm it, no deposit is taken, and we never ring back to sell you a block. If we cannot fit you in soon enough we will say that too, and name somebody who can.

The office runs eight until six Monday to Friday and nine until one on Saturday. Lessons run seven days a week from seven in the morning to eight at night, because shift workers and sixth-formers need opposite ends of the day and both are welcome. The first slot of the day and the last are the easiest to get and the ones nobody asks for. We close for a week at Christmas and on bank holiday Mondays, and both are announced here and by text to anybody with a lesson booked. In heavy snow or ice we cancel rather than teach — a learner’s first experience of a skid should not be an unplanned one — and nobody is charged for a lesson we called off.