I reckon I got a great start for my L's. like towe said, I started the first two lessons in an automatic from my dad in the back streets, which taught me how to control a car firstly. Than I progessed into the lighter feeling corolla which was a manual. Yet again I learnt in the back streets with lots of twists and turns so I could get use to down gearing and up gearing at appropriate points. After that I progressed onto open roads, where it was really quite easy.
However people do s*&t me off. They think because I am an L plater that I am going to slowly. So they will either pull out in front of me, making me brake hard or swerve in a couple of cases, or rev past me and give me the flick for doing a little over the speed limit. Bah! :D