Shakey hand man

I don't know if it's a Scottish thing, a Glasgow thing, or a thing that everyone does and has just passed me by, but among certain people that I work with at least there comes the need for them to vigorously shake your hand whilst wishing you happy new year. It's the first thing, above all else, that they have to do on seeing you in the new year. Work has been rather empty the last couple of days, but today I received my first of these handshakes. I was accosted by one of my research groups technicians who thrust out his hand to me and preceded to attempt to crush mine - my hand did actually hurt for a good few minutes afterwards. You see this new years handshake can't be a light limp wristed affair (not that my handshakes are feminine), it has to be a full on, manly, lets-see-who-can-brake-the-most-metacarpals, job. I'm not complaining about the act, indeed it's a rather friendly thing to do, but I'm quite pleased that I'm away from work next week, so my hand should survive intact for a while longer.