Finally we have some sort of winter thrust upon us in the form of snow. Seeing my car and garden buried under about five inches of snow brought out the childlike glee of Snowmen! Day off! Fun! It only took a couple of seconds for this to turn into Roads! Work! Sheer logistics of getting there!

After digging my car out and scraping several layers of snow off I was ready to get going. There was been a spate of state-the-painfully-obvious warnings on the news and via email about driving safely; so I had my blanket, emergency food and torch all ready for the mammoth 10 mile journey to work.

My favourite ‘warning’ is not to make unnecessary journeys. Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I made a purposefully unnecessary journey. Generally I only go places because I need or want to.

Driving into work this morning at about 7.30am in fairly heavy snowfall, trundling along at about 30mph, I got a warm glow inside from the tanker lorry driving right on my bumper all the way up Sally-in-the-woods beeping and flashing before overtaking me seconds before a blind bend. I can only imagine the contents of the tanker were making a necessary journey that could not be hampered by sensible drivers.

Perhaps it was full of milk and small children were waiting for their calcium-drenched beverage in a local school, although most are closed. Or perhaps it was full of cement and enthusiastic builders were waiting on a building site to get started on a house in the freezing snow. More likely it was full of the fluid that normally helps the brain to make rational decisions and decide that overtaking in the snow on a blind bend is a stupid thing to do.

Despite idiot drivers, there is still something magical about seeing the countryside blanketed in white – although I’m not really looking forward to the drive home through grey slush.