When the snow first arrived it was a welcome relief – covering our collective black mood with a soft white blanket that reminded us of carefree childhood days.

And perhaps it even allowed us to forget about the doom and gloom of recession for just a few moments.

Five days later when we woke up to the worse whiteout of all, we could hardly believe snow was still on the ground.

And we were left wondering when on earth is it all going to end?

Snowball fights between senior politicians and TV celebrities are one thing.

Closing both Severn bridges because drivers are in danger of being speared by giant icicles, is quite something else.

Snow on the beach!

Hard to believe until you see the pictures of Burnham.

Most people had seen nothing like it before as the worst weather for decades hit the region and turned the South West into something like Siberia.

Switching on breakfast TV and seeing hundreds of people being rescued from cars on a the main A38 to Exeter yesterday morning did little to allay our fears about getting to work.

But what to do?

Breathless BBC staff reported live from blizzard Bristol, with pictures of abandoned cars and a few brave souls sliding along icy roads bordered by snow drifts.

We knew every police force in the South West was warning people not to drive unless absolutely necessary, we had seen the pictures of the M4 and M5 at a virtual standstill and we had been told that public transport had ground to a halt.

But after a week condemning headteachers for closing schools at the first few flakes of the white stuff, phoning the boss to say we were not planning to walk ten miles to the office – and were instead joining the six million workers who stayed away earlier that week – felt rather defeatist.

Yet in the end most of us had no choice but to stay at home.

Much of the West country ran out of salt which meant getting out of our estates onto main roads – which the gritters had worked around the clock to try to keep open – proved impossible.

All of a sudden it was serious.

Refuse collections were cancelled, hospitals were closed to all but emergencies and ambulances struggled to reach rural areas on impassable roads.

Thousands of schoolchildren remained off schoool as most schoolgates across the region remained firmly shut.

And those forced to go to school clearly felt aggrieved.

Headmistress Julie Tridgell sent home 50 pupils on Wednesday because they refused to stop a snowball fight and go into class.

Parents accused her of being heavy handed when she suspended the GSCE pupils from struggling Nova Hreod School in Moredon, Wiltshire.

One who refused to be named said: ''It's ludicrous to tell kids who don't want to go to class that they are suspended. This is a crucial year and to interrupt it because they want to throw a few snowballs is ridiculous.''

But Ms Tridgell said teachers had to show the pupils who was boss.

''They refused to come in so I had to take a tough line," she said.

After days of utilizing everything from baby baths to beer trays for makeshift sledges, by yesterday even the youngsters were tiring.

By last night the white blanket of snow was losing its crispness and thoughts were turning to the week ahead. One of the worst "snow events" in living memory is fine for most people, two is unfortunate.

But the forecasters cannot rule out more snow to come.So keep the sledge and the shovels on standby.