Welcome back Andy.
Why have you not been back to the question you posted recently headlined 'SO'?
Interesting because the word 'SO' was mentioned on a late-night phone-in, as one of the unnecessary words, that some choose to start off a conversation with.
Others chose to end their verbal statements with words such as "you know what I mean".
Perhaps we could start a thread on this subject, the subject of the late-night phone-in was English words that the Americans have chosen to adopt, and ended up with unnecessary words, as already mentioned.
ie "At the end of the day" "I turned around and said" and so on.
Sorry for the intervention LochNessMonster