Still amazes me that the transport system in the south seems to grind to a halt at the first sign of a bit of frost and a sprinkling of snow!

I'll have you know I skidded twice on the pavement on my way to work yesterday and thought of going back home to barricade myself, as the conditions outside were clearly not fit for human activity. But no, I struggled on (as did quite a few other people, I noticed) and made it to my office, because we're well tough in the heroic South.

"Well tough", eh?
This reads oddly to anyone over the age of fifty, because the modern (slang) use of "well" as an intensifier dates, according to the OED, only from 1986 (and they added it only in 1993).
Of course, in a few cases (e.g. "well pleased"), it's been in use for much longer, and the OED has hundreds of examples of it used with a hyphen ("well-hung"), but your use of it shows that your English acquaintances are mostly young.
Here is how the OED notes this, at the end of several thousand words about "well" as a qualifier:
"For def. read: In modern use, in well able, aware, worth, worthy, and with other quantifiable adjs.: to a substantial extent, more than somewhat; certainly, undoubtedly, thoroughly. (See also sense 13 c above.) c. slang. Used as an intensifier to qualify any adj., esp. in commendatory language."

Thanks for that Tony, in this context I used "well" in a humorous manner, and in fact I only use it as an intensifier when I'm trying to be funny. Why? Probably because it is "yoof" speak, which means that the person who uses it sounds silly if she's over 16 and very uncool (like me).

Yes, I did realise that. I have long been well impressed by your command of several different registers in English.
Besides, this gives me a subject for a post...

check out http://snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm
for a nice little discussion of the phrase :)