How Are You?

Ah, the period after Christmas/New Year. Many of us are back in the office/workplace now, and not looking forward to another year of drudgery. For me in particular, this time of year represents one of my least favourite formalities - smalltalk.

"Morning"
"Morning"
"How are you?"
"Good thanks. You?"
"Yeah, good. Good Christmas?"
"Yeah, good thanks. What about you?"
"Good....yeah.. good.
"Good"

To be honest, I don't really care. Whether you were round your parents or you parents-in-law is of zero importance to me, and what you ate in the way of Christmas dinner even less so.

Can we not just assume that we've all had a good weekend/Christmas/New Year/holiday/Easter etc unless we hear otherwise? I reckon I could claim back around half an hour of my life every day.