Upper Middle Petrol Head:

The first staging point on the Hobart waterfront. What have I done to the cafe owners of Geeveston that they hate me so much?  Regular readers may remember my frustration at never, ever being able to find Masaaki's Sushi open, let alone get a table there (please see: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7165367970551834236#editor/target=post;postID=6286470083834570589;onPublishedMenu=overviewstats;onClosedMenu=overviewstats;postNum=1;src=postname ).  This time, I didn't even try. Now it's the Old Bank of Geeveston  and  the newly-opened Baker and Co, situated in what used to me a Mitre 10 hardware store, that have conspired to leave me hungry and irritable.  On a Sunday!  Yes, two of the town's best cafes were closed on a busy Sunday with the town spilling over with people!!  And here was me thinking the town was doing it tough after the recent catastrophic fires that had devastated hundreds of square...

And now for something completely different!  Today's Readers' Photos offering comes from some-time UMPH correspondent Michael, who spotted this magnificent Hongqi limousine whilst on a recent trip to China. According to a plaque that proud Chinese officials helpfully placed near the Hongqi, the marque was established in China by the FAW group in 1958 and was the first car to be entirely designed and produced in that country.  They are apparently "regarded as world-class cars," or so the nationalistic plaque-writer would have us believe!   I'm not sure just how world-class Hongqi cars really are.  However, I would hazard to guess they're probably very robustly built and that, as a symbol of Chinese aspiration, the CA7560 limousine is hugely likely to be beautifully  finished,  too. Of course, a limousine is not the sort of vehicle your average bicycle-riding Chinese peasant is ever going to own.  Again quoting the plaque, the C...

When the Italian Correspondente isn't overseas seeing the world's best cars, they come to him, right here in Tasmania!  This immaculate, very original Mini Cooper S is a case in point and would appear to have been captured whilst Team GTV have been putting in the hard yards on his lovely Alfa (if you haven't already, please see  https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-work-in-progress-2-italian.html?q=alfa and  https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-work-in-progress-21-italian.html?q=dodge ) . I'm not in the habit of consuming my meals from anything but well-washed crockery or, at a pinch, a sterile takeaway container.  However, I've now got a better handle on the whole so clean you could eat your dinner off it thing, as the MIni's engine bay really does convey a genuine sense of catering-grade cleanliness.  The rest of the car's similarly beautifully presented.   Do you have car photos you'd like to...