The cold snap we were experiencing at Christmas slowly progressed into an ice age that held parts of the country frozen in time for days. Outdoors, the world had been transformed into into something unrecognisable, with a thick layer of ice and snow blanketing everything. It was suddenly commonplace for there to be sheets of ice lurking around every corner, just waiting to catch an unsuspecting victim. Despite the instinct to hibernate until the worst was over, the weather really wasn’t all that bad – the real problem was being unprepared for something that only happens once in a blue moon in this country. It’s hard to criticise people for being poor at driving in these conditions when they don’t get much practise, and the roads are poorly gritted, if at all.