Mr P - getting e-commerce almost right

Mr P ran a promotion on news24 yesterday. From a bar at the bottom of my browser, I clicked on Aztec Print Bikini which took me to a pop-up with a buy now option. Would it take me straight to checkout and ask for my details, I wondered. Turns out I end up 'in' the Ladies Swim Shop. Presumably that Aztec Print Bikini is somewhere in this 'shop'. I eventually found it ... on page 3. How many shoppers would take the trouble to search for an item the had already selected?

Undaunted, I decided to try something different. How about a mesh top? How difficult could that be? This one was a dead end. Simply went nowhere.

Seems to me, Mr P need to tweak their campaigns just a little.

The Romantics - Movie Review

Katie Holmes , Josh Duhamel, Anna Paquin and a cameo from Candice Bergen

So much promise wasted.

Readers Digest should do movies. Like they do books. Condensed. This one could be over in 35 minutes. But you still would not want to see it.

A group of once close friends get together in a beach house ahead of a wedding in their midst. Maid of honour Laura and groom Tom were once an item. On the eve of the wedding they all drink a lot after the rehearsal and Tom & Laura rediscover their love leaving bride to be Lila wondering if the wedding will go ahead.
The participants come across as rich, spoilt and selfish – none are likable – they garner no viewer sympathy so we care little for their emotional anguish.

Based on a novel by Galt Niederhoffer who directed the movie.

3.5/10 – boring and uninspiring and offers little to redeem itself.

The Lady - Movie Review

Sacrifice and Democracy

Bond girl Michelle Yeoh portrays Aung San Suu Kyi as she becomes the embodiment of Burma’s democracy movement. Her portrayal is superb. Dawid Thewlis is good too as Siu’s husband, Oxford academic Michael Aris. Some of the supporting acting comes across a little flat.

The movie is a bit long and there is a sense that it is a tedious documentary as much as a love story or an epic of the triumph of good over evil. I felt that the movie could have been better – that it did not quite deliver on its promise. Yet I enjoyed it. 6 / 10.

Food: House of Coffees at GrandWest Casino

Food: House of Coffees at GrandWest Casino

The warning signs came early. ‘We do not have sweetener any more’. This in a coffee shop?! Constant promises that the food is coming. Other tables emptied; new guests were seated and served. And fed. No sign of my food. An hour into the visit, the coffee was long gone. Paid for the coffee and left.

No web based contact options on the Contact Us page on their web site.

House of Coffees will not see me again in a hurry.

A quick teaser to tell you that the Cliff Column will soon again be updated on a regular basis on Blogger. Of course, the by-line will change to indicate that these updates come to you from Cape Town, my new adopted home.

Improving those Matric Results

South African 2010 matric results are out. Better than last year but still great scope for improvement.

Our education system strives toward a brilliant teacher in a well-appointed classromm. Some schools can provide this. Those at the bottom of the food chain are less able to. For them, a different model makes sense: Find those brilliant teachers and put the entire curriculum on video. Let students work through the videos at their own pace, guided by their teachers who now take on the role of tutor -- dealing with specific individual questions from the students -- rather than simply regurgitating a lesson badly.

The Cliff Column has moved.

The Cliff Column is updated from time to time here.