Max - only one quick note - you ended with "Salaam" but com-o-van (of course) you do know that my language here in ISRAEL is e-vrit (HEBREW) - so the word I use is Shalom!

Indeed, and I do hope that I gave no offence by using a greeting in the other official language of Medinat Yisra'el.
Actually, I use salaam for the same reasons I use namaste. It sounds nice, and it's a link to my father's birthplace. He grew up in what is now Pakistan, and salaam was, and is, an everyday greeting in that part of world.

Noho ora mai