To me, it’s nothing more than rain with ideas above its station. My predisposition for hating crystalline water (see, I find it hard to even utter the ‘s’ word) very probably stems from a series of unpleasant incidents during childhood: finding a pet rabbit frozen rigid in its hutch at the height of one particularly bitter winter; a painful collision with a concrete fence post while sledging; the week-long numbness down one side of my face after being blindsided by a snowball on entering the school playground.