Celia, and just what does this mean --- "Speak properly" Nivard? Is that a deliberate lighting of the blue touch-paper? --- and here I’ve been carping on about the Glasgow patter being unintelligible for those not conversant with it. I had to go to Google to get an understanding of the expression only to discover that it is a colloquialism...so if you’re not in the know, you won’t ‘get it!’ "Touchpaper" is paper impregnated with saltpetre (potassium or sodium nitrate; a. k. a. "nitre"), and used as a fuse for explosives, especially fireworks. Lighting it initiates the process leading to the explosion. To "light the blue touch paper" is simply a colloquial expression meaning "to kick things off" or "to get things started" Maisie