As fans of Game of Thrones will no doubt have been saying this week, winter has definitely come. I started Monday with a very grumpy rant about how ‘a bit of snow shouldn’t stop anything – we live in northern Europe, after all’.

Then, on Tuesday morning I immediately took back every curmudgeonly word I had said. Piling my daughter into the motor for our weekly pilgrimage to her grandmother’s abode, I prepared to drive in the snow for the first time in a couple of years.

Pushing the grand old age of 40, I’ve been driving for a long time, and even once took a snow driving course. I had no real reason to be nervous, but I was (mostly because of the precious cargo strapped into the booster seat) and I was not alone.

Pulling out onto the road and beginning our journey, it seemed that every other driver was in a similar state of anxiety; all, very sensibly, taking things at a snail’s pace, yet a couple even choosing to pull over, seemingly to collect themselves.

We had a couple of small sliding moments early doors, but quickly got into the swing of things while deliberately choosing not to accelerate beyond a........

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