"He wouldn't go out of his way.....

...to speak to you".

I found myself thinking about this expression recently, well today actually. What made me think of it and what does it mean anyway?

I was in the queue in my local spar this morning with a box of start under my arm-obviously hadn't had breakfast yet and the above saying came into my head. I thought it quite absurd, for why should someone go out of his or her way to speak to you in the first place? I mean, would you, driving down a one way street, realising you've passed a neighbour without waving, say to yourself;

"Jesus, I'd better reverse back up (go out of your way) this one way street here and greet my neighbour"?

Of course not because you'd be going out of your way to do so. Might even cause an accident. I stood there in line, wondering when the last time was when I "went out of my way to speak to someone, or when someone went out of their way to speak to me? I couldn't remember. Maybe because people as a rule tend not to go out of their way to greet each other. That's the point, they would if it wasn't out of their way.

Furthermore, if someone did go the extra mile, do an about turn, approach you to say "how you getting on?", you might just look at them funny, and think, "what's wrong with yer man"?

Maybe I should get out more...