Great challenge you started in the Xara forum, Andrew. Ice is a tricky thing to draw. Nice entries there, already. I wouldn't even dream of drawing ice with vectors. Too hard for me. Easier with bitmaps since you can smear and smudge pixels.
Problems and things not working. I get them all the time. But I usually solve them by hair pulling and forum lurking. If I have questions, it's usually already asked and answered in the past by someone somewhere. You just have to know where to look.
PI is pretty handy. Don't expect it to do everything PS does, though. But within it's range, it gets the job done.
Chill Pill... that has a good ring to it. Maybe I'll make one later, Sally?