Maastricht

Early on Saturday morning (ok, ok: we're only an hour away from Maastricht by train, so I had to wake up at 09h00 in order to meet the rest of the people in Maastricht by 11h00) we arrived at the train station in Eindhoven. The 10h02 train to Maastricht was so full that we weren't even able to get on, due to an earlier train not arriving, and seemingly the whole of the Netherlands wanting to go the christmas market in Maastricht on a Saturday morning. Amazingly they were able to arrange for another train to take people from Eindhoven to Maastricht and within 20 minutes we were off again.

It was a chilly day in Maastricht, but the Christmas feeling was all around, and fun was had by all. Originally the plan was to visit Drielandenpunt and Valkenburg as well, but that will have to wait as there was more than enough to do in Maastricht itself. We went up on the ferris wheel at the Christmas market, and as you can see from the image above it's quite a sight.

We walked south from the city centre to Helpoort and the city walls, which are really a sight to behold:

We also tried to visit caves to the south of Maastricht, but missed the guided and tour, and unfortunately you can't go into the caves by yourself. So we had a beer that was made (stored?) in caves instead.

For the rest of the photos, see the Facebook album.

A weekend in Budapest

We arrived in Budapest on Thursday afternoon, travelled by bus from the airport to the closest metro station, and then by metro to the city centre. As we exited Deák Ferenc tér metro station,  we were smack-bang in the middle of the Pest side of the capital of Hungary. To get to our hotel, we had to cross the famous Chain Bridge (pictured above) built over the Danube river (yes, the one in the most famous Johann Strauss waltz "The Blue Danube"). The Danube splits Budapest into Buda (the west side) and Pest (the east side).

 The evening we went to the annual Christmas market in Vörösmarty tér Square, where they sell (only) hand-crafted goods, and delicious treats like "Kürtőskalács”, a traditional hollow, cylinder-shaped pastry - in a sense similar to good old Afrikaans "stokbrood", but coated in sugary goodness and cocoa (or coconut, or other assorted flavours - take your pick!). Also on the menu was traditional sausages, mulled wine (yes, it's glühwein) and some sort of extreme garlic potato dish.

The next morning we visited the Hungarian Parliament building, the third largest parliament building in the world. It houses the Hungarian crown jewels, which were kept in Fort Knox in the US for safekeeping from the Soviet Union.



Most of the fun stuff in Budapest is on the top of Castle Hill, and includes the Royal Palace (with National Gallery), Turul bird, Fisherman's Bastion, Mary Magdalene Tower, Matthias Church, Vienna Gate and the Buda Hill Labyrinths. The video above shows one way of reaching the top, but we usually just followed one of the many footpaths criss-crossing the hill.

Some of the interesting places to eat in Budapest include Marxim, a post-communist pizza place with pizza like "Laika's Favourite" and "Pizza a la Kremlin", and Nagyi palacsintázója ("Granny's Pancakes"), where a pancake with delicious Nutella filling costs about €0.50.

When in Budapest, you have to try the thermal baths - we tried both the Széchenyi and Géllert baths. Széchenyi Spa is the largest thermal bath in Europe - and yes, the trip from the change rooms to the pool in your swimming trunks when the outside temperature is about 6 degrees C is probably not the most enjoyable experience, until you reach the 36 degrees thermal spring heated water.

The rest of the photos from our trip is in a photo album on Facebook.

Dutch Design Week

It's cold in the Netherlands.. not freezing cold, but cold enough to warrant wearing a beanie, scarf and gloves when cycling. And it's rainy.. not crazy rainy, and when it rains it's a little bit warmer due to the cloud cover. This weekend we changed over to Daylight Savings Time, which means there's now an hour difference between the Netherlands and South Africa. It also means that there's light when I wake up, but that it's already dark when I leave the university in the afternoon.

This past week was Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. We kicked it off on Friday 16 October with the opening of the ID'09 Exhibition, which showed off our department's Bachelors and Masters projects. One of the projects that I found really interesting was "Jukebugs", which are smart music players, sensitive to light and motion. You can influence a Jukebug’s music choice by exposing it to different lighting situations, or by moving/shaking it.



During the week we attended exhibitions at the Philips Klokgebouw (pictured above) and at the High Tech Campus (pictured below). The exhibitions at the Klokgebouw more closely resembled the conventional(?) idea that most people have of industrial design as designing form and function (e.g. expensive chairs/tables/kettles/vacuum cleaners).



The High Tech Campus is were Philips Research is situated. A few years ago, while still busy with my undergraduate degree, I had hoped to one day being able to work there. It was therefore quite strange to now being able to visit the place and see what it's really like. One of the exhibitions we attended there was the Philips ExperienceLab. This includes the HomeLab (which consists of a kitchen, living room and bedroom where they try out new ideas and devices), ShopLab (which consists of a mock-up clothing store, with innovative lighting techniques) and HotelLab (which consists of a hotel lobby and two hotel rooms, with a number of interesting ideas and devices that they haven't even showed to possible clients yet). All in all an interesting experience!

Turtle-sized chocolate croissants

First off: I've decided to post my photos to Facebook rather than Flickr, as there's a 200 picture limit on Flickr, and I would like to have the online version as a type of backup in case something happens to my computer. You can still access the latest album even if you're not on Facebook, by going here.


This lovely culinary specimen is a turtle-sized chocolate croissant, sold by the wonderful Fournos Bakery at OR Tambo International Airport. This is me consuming said turtle-sized chocolate croissant:

And yes, it was deliciiooussss... :P

So, I'm back from my trip to South Africa and Kenya, which, as you can see from the pictures,
was awesome. A week of hard work at the IEEE AFRICON 2009 conference in Nairobi, and a week of partying and relaxing in good ol' SA with friends and family.

Last night the Parlotones played in Amsterdam. It was great fun - you'll be amazed at the number of South Africans in the Netherlands willing to support SA music! Note to self: Don't depend on the night train to get you back to Eindhoven from Amsterdam in future - you will be spending a lot of time (2 hours) waiting to change over in Utrecht.

If you look very carefully you might just be able to make out Kahn from the Parlotones singing Lisa se Klavier in the photo below :P

And apparently you lose the ability to identify fashionable accessories when you don't get enough sleep:

Amsterdam, Utrecht, Dusseldorf

Wow, I've been so busy this week there wasn't even enough time to write about my Amsterdam experience last weekend. OK, so here goes. Last weekend I went to Amsterdam to visit my parents on their Netherlands-Scotland trip. After getting out of the metro, on my way to the apartment where we would be staying the weekend, I came across this amazing sight:



The next morning we went to the Rijksmuseum, of which the most awesome part was seeing Rembrandt's Night Watch - it really is a magnificent painting that you should see at once during your lifetime. After that it was time for the Heineken Experience - a new (revamped in 2008) tour through the Heineken factory, with the coolest exhibitions and things to see on everything beer-related! Check out this cool multitouch table in the Heineken Experience bar:



The beers themselves are served from a frozen tap, keeping them at a refreshing zero degrees:



We also had dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Amsterdam the following evening - a must-see if you're a fan of any kind of rock music - there's rock memorabilia covering the walls, from Jimi Hendrix to Slash and even Blink-182!



The next day, on my way back to Eindhoven, I met up with Gretchén (a fellow South African :) who showed me all around Utrecht, including the Dom Tower and monastery gardens.



This weekend, after spending Friday evening in Leiden with some fellow South Africans, I met up with my parents for the last time before the end of their tour in Dusseldorf, Germany. Dusseldorf is located on the Rhine, probably the most important river in Western Europe:



Apparently there are so many pubs and bars in the Altstadt (Old Town) of Dusseldorf that they call it the "longest bar in the world". Well, here in Eindhoven we have more that 50 pubs and bars in one street, which looks a lot more impressive! For more photos, check out my Flickr photostream!

My IKEA Cabinet

My Cabinet, originally uploaded by gniezen.

The cabinet is finally done! For work-in-progress photos you should check out my Flickr photostream. My parents are coming to visit me tomorrow! They arrived with Emirates in Dusseldorf (Germany) today and travelled by rental car to Valkenburg, a small town near Maastricht in the Netherlands. Tomorrow night they're staying over in a hotel in Eindhoven, and they will be travelling through the Netherlands the whole of next week. I hope to join up with them next weekend in Amsterdam!

The new academic year starts on Monday, so this will be the first time that I'll be on campus with all the students there. My supervisor and promoter have also returned from their holidays, so I'll probably have a few meetings with them during the week to discuss my progress and on how I need to proceed from here.

I've signed up for Dutch for Beginners classes at the university, starting on 7 September. The schedule is quite intensive - two hours every Monday evening and two hours every Wednesday evening! It runs for the entire semester, so I hope to be a lot more comfortable with speaking Dutch by the end of the year. So far it's been getting easier to understand and read, but it's really quite difficult to try and speak it properly if you have Afrikaans grammar and constructs running around in your head.

Canoe trip

Canoe trip, originally uploaded by gniezen.

A group of South Africans in the Netherlands that I met through Facebook had a canoe trip close to Eindhoven today. I wanted to join them and left my flat at early this morning to take a very relaxed 13km bike ride to the starting point for the canoe trip in Valkenswaard.

From there they took us by bus 14km south to a drop-off point in Belgium, We got in our canoes (I shared a three-seater with two nice girls from Amsterdam) and paddled back lazily to Valkenswaard. We stopped halfway for lunch in Borkel, a very small town barely on the Dutch side of the Netherlands-Belgium border.

Unfortunately I left my camera/phone at the starting point (as there was the possibility of our canoe tipping over) so I wasn't able to take any photos of the canoe trip itself. It was great to just unwind a bit in nature, and to see & hear people speak in Afrikaans for the first time in two months! ;)

Oppikoppi & Rotterdam

Oppikoppi Brochure circa 2008, originally uploaded by gniezen.

With almost everyone I know being at Oppikoppi this weekend, I thought I should make this 2008 Oppikoppi brochure I found in one of my books my title picture (as a tribute :).

I spent most of the weekend in Rotterdam, leaving on Friday evening at 18h00 (and realizing as I got on the train that the weekend return ticket I bought was only valid from 19h00, luckily my ticket wasn't checked) and returning tonight (Sunday) at 19h00. On Saturday evening I had dinner with some of my family - my aunt Danielle makes a killer bobotie (from a recipe she got from a South African guest house). I also received a new bicycle bag from my uncle Marcel, which will make it a lot easier to do grocery shopping on my bicycle (and without having to perform a crazy balancing act as is currently the case).

Most of my weekend was spent reading a new book by Neil Strauss called "Emergency - One Man's Story of a Dangerous World and How To Stay Alive in It. It chronicles his quest for second citizenship and learning survival skills "Just in Case". It makes for very engaging reading, and also made me realize how extremely lucky I am to have been able to obtain second citizenship so easily (almost the entire first half of the book is dedicated to his struggles in getting it). The book makes you think about how much you would need to know and be able to do to become completely self-sufficient and survive on your own.

Bier Professor & Park Hilaria

I had ambitious plans for this weekend - I was going to travel to the largest national park in the Netherlands, Hoge Veluwe, bike around all day and visit the art museum there. Unfortunately my plans got a bit sidetracked as it was one of my fellow PhD student's birthday party on Friday night - we went for dinner at the Trafalgar Pub and for drinks at the Bier Professor afterwards. The Bier Professor is a small little bar, but with a large selection of more than 130 (mostly Belgian) beers. I ended up enjoying the conversation so much that I went home a little bit late and decided to sleep in on Saturday morning.

It ended up not being such a bad decision, as I was able to get some washing done and make a delicious brunch. I figured out how my new convection oven works (it's a combo-microwave, but up to now I have only used the microwave function). Why doesn't all ovens switch off automatically when you set the timer? ;)

Last night I went to the Park Hilaria, a "kermis" (carnival/festival) in Eindhoven. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so huge (it stretches out for more than a kilometre in one of the main streets that was closed up) or so busy (thousands of people). There were hundreds of stalls and amusement rides - I will probably go there again on Thursday with some of the other international students when it's not so busy and crowded.

Getting close to nature

Karpendonksche plas, originally uploaded by gniezen.

This morning it was raining, so I went to see the new Harry Potter movie at the cinema, as the movie prices are a bit more respectable during the morning (€5) as during the rest of the day (€9+). I booked the ticket online, and realised the Netherlands have a very cool paying system called iDEAL, where when you want to buy something online, you can click on the iDEAL logo and it will take you to the bank's website, where you can authorize the transaction using your bank's internet banking system. No credit card required, but it obviously only works with Dutch e-commerce websites.

When the rain finally cleared, I got on my bicycle and explored the area a bit more. There is a lake close to the university and my flat, with jogging routes, lots of trees and wide open grass fields (as you can see in the photo above).

Further to the south of Eindhoven is the city park, called Stadswandelpark Looiakkers, with about 30 statues and small ponds between the trees. Check out my Flickr set for more photos. I also tested out the GPS tracking facility on my phone, so you can view the route I've taken from the university to the city park on Nokia Sportstracker website.

Settling in...

My bike, originally uploaded by gniezen.

So I'm slowly but surely settling in in Eindhoven. I received my bank card from the post office today, so now I finally have access to money I transferred while still in SA! I also received my BSN (Burger Service Nummer) number, a type of Social Security number, which is required for everything from bank accounts to being able to receive a salary. Along with the BSN number came a "stadspas" (city pass) which may be used at the city library, city swimming pool as well as city ice skating rink. In total I already have about 6 access cards: one for my apartment, one for the university, one for the sports centre, one for the metro, one for opening the garbage disposal and the city pass. And at least 4 are RFID-enabled.

The bank card is quite interesting, as it also contains a smart card that is used as a so-called chipknip. Credit cards are used very rarely here, and some shops don't want to pay the debit card banking fees involved for very small transactions. You can load small amounts of money onto your chipknip and use it to pay for small transactions without having to enter a PIN. As the chipknip is a smart card, the amount is stored on the card itself and payments are deducted directly from the card, so a network connection to the bank is not required.

I got an bicycle as a present from my grandparents on Sunday - it's a little old and doesn't have any break or gear levers, but it's a bike none the less! Lots of people ride very similar bicycles here, as more expensive ones will just get stolen and they're more comfortable than mountain bikes (and more practical when it rains). And if you were wondering, braking is performed by back-pedalling ;)

My latest purchase is a Philips Senseo coffee machine. It really is the coolest coffee machine in the world! There is a similar one in South Africa called the Russell Hobbs Uno Uno, but the coffee doesn't taste as good as this.. You put a coffee pad in the top, press the button and a few seconds later you have creamy, foamy coffee :) See my Flickr set for a photo.

First Weekend in Eindhoven

Friday afternoon there was a farewell function at the campus restaurant for three people that are leaving the Department of Industrial Design at TU Eindhoven. We arrived at 16h00 and I enjoyed getting to know my project team mate, supervisor and head of the department a little bit better - the beers were for the department's account, so we stayed until 21h00 :P The evening I walked around Stratumseind a bit and discovered an alternative rock bar where there was a live band playing, awesome.

The next morning I went to the Woenselse Markt, a Saturday street market very close to where I'm staying. There they sell absolutely everything - from fresh fish to computer equipment, from fruit and veggies to underwear, from meat to bicycle parts. I bought a 15m network cable to connect my laptop to the unlimited access fibre Internet access point in my room, yay! :)

After the market I travelled by bus to IKEA - the house & home shopping wonderland. I was very impressed by the place - as you walk in you grab a measuring tape, notepad and pencil and walk through the showroom. In the showroom they have different designs available, with mock-up kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and living areas. If you like something, you write down its name, number, color and ordering code. The floor below is a self-service warehouse, where you pick up what you have written down and then pay for it. Just before you get to the exit, there is a fast food kiosk selling hot dogs and cool drink for €1 (probably the cheapest in the Netherlands)! After you've ordered, you get a cup to take to the soda fountain where it's drink-as-much-as-you-want. They really thought of everything - there are rope dispensers to make it easier to bind down your boot if your stuff won't fit inside your car.

This morning I attended a church service at 09h30- the church is only about 1.6km away, so it's still within comfortable walking distance. My grandma and aunt & uncle came to visit me this afternoon and brought with a care package from my parents! :) TU Eindhoven covers a certain amount of moving expenses, which allowed me to send a 23kg package with DHL. Some of the contents of the package:
Milo, chutney, biltong, nuts, homemade rusks, Creme Soda (!!! :), clothes and new towels. I also bought a new fridge and microwave / convection oven combo, as my uncle's car made it a little bit easier to get the stuff from the shop to my flat.

My first day at work & moving into my new flat

Study & eating area, originally uploaded by gniezen.

I arrived in Eindhoven at 09h00 with a 23kg suitcase and a ruck-sack. After signing the rental contract, paying the deposit and first month's rent and collecting the keys (magnetic strip cards) I move into my new flat. The photo above is my new study & eating area, and you can see two more photo's in the Flickr set (links are on the right-hand side of the page).

I only arrived at the university at 11h00, and met the other PhD students that I'm sharing an office with for the first time - Sibrecht (Netherlands), Omar (Pakistan), Alex (El Salvador) and Bram (Netherlands). I think there might be one or two more, but they are on holiday. Unfortunately the person who organises access passes for new employees wasn't in today, so I had to get a visitor's pass. Hopefully I will be able to sort this out tomorrow, as I require an access pass (with employee number) for quite a number of things. They have however been able to provide me with a network account and university e-mail address, so I have access to the necessary systems to do my work.

Blue Monday

Windows error, originally uploaded by gniezen.

I left Rotterdam at 07h00 this morning to be in time for a meeting at 09h30 in Eindhoven. When I arrived in Utrecht to get on another train, I suddenly realised that there are no trains running from Utrecht to Eindhoven today (apparently due to maintenance/construction work). I had to travel all the way back to Rotterdam to catch a train via Tilburg to Eindhoven, so I only arrived there at 10h30. Lucky for me the presenter for the 09h30 meeting also had to travel through Utrecht and experienced the same problem, so the meeting was cancelled.

To add to my blue Monday, the lady that organises housing matters at the university wasn't in today, so I will only be able to finalise my housing matters on Wednesday.

Before lunch I had a look at a flat similar to the one I'll be staying in from Wednesday - there is a nice big bathroom with a shower (I'm happy, I don't like bathing :), a tiny room for cleaning equipment with a fridge (so that you don't have to share a fridge in the communal kitchen, yay :) and a rather spacious bedroom that includes two chairs, a bed, two tables and a bookcase. The communal kitchen was quite clean, with a dining table, couch and a TV.

This afternoon I walked down to Stratumseind, the street with the most bars and pubs in the whole of Netherlands (more than 40). On a Monday afternoon in Stratumseind the smell of fermented beer is worse than Hatfield Square on a Saturday morning, so I'll have to come back one evening to see how it compares.. :)

What is behind door number one?

What is behind door number one?, originally uploaded by gniezen.

This morning I met my new supervisor, Dr Hu, and promoter, Dr Feijs, for the first time. Dr Hu is Chinese with a background in computational mathematics, while Dr Feijs's background is in electrical engineering and computer science. I attended my first colloquium at the Industrial Design department this afternoon, and I must say, after the three presentations (and the morning's discussions) I am pretty excited about my PhD!

I have decided to move into the apartment that was arranged by the university, even if I have to share the kitchen with 4 other people. I managed to slip into the building today (as they were busy repairing one of the security doors) and realised that the kitchen is a totally separate room down the hall, with the 4 rooms all next to each other in the hall. So at least the set up isn't the same as in a commune, and I'll still have my own privacy.

I'm still looking at other possibilities with a real estate agent. The one place we viewed today had a big lounge area, a nice bedroom (with double bed) and a kitchen. But the three areas are all in different rooms that need to be locked, as the hall that connects them is shared with the neighbour living upstairs?! And the shower is in the kitchen, how weird.. it may help with multi-tasking though - I would be able to make toast and scrambled eggs while still in the shower. :P

Rotterdam City Centre

Het Potlood, originally uploaded by gniezen.

This afternoon I had some time to visit Rotterdam's city centre, where you can find the famous Het Potlood, or Pencil House, and the Kubuswonings, or Cube Houses.

Now, usually I don't find shopping very relaxing or exciting, unless I'm in a book store or in an electronics store. :P My mission for the afternoon was to find an Afrikaans-Nederlands dictionary, and the best place to try would be Selexys Donner. Yes, I know, as an Afrikaans-speaking person I also twitched when I first read it, but Selexys Donner is an innocent little bookstore... OK, not really little - this place is HUGE!! Imagine a bookstore with 9 (yes, 9!) floors with books covering almost every topic under the sun. There's a floor dedicated to classical music and a floor for all other types of music (including CDs, DVDs and sheet music). I even found sheet music books for Green Day and 30 Seconds to Mars :) There's a floor with a coffee shop and books on sale, and walls and walls covered with all my favourite computer books :P Needless to say, I spent more than an hour in there before walking over to the electronics store next door.

Mediamarkt is an electronics store that has one floor for TV/DVD/stereo systems and other electronics, one floor for household electronics and home wares, and one floor dedicated to games/music/consoles. Imagine walking through a store where there are so many LCD TVs that they take up half of the one floor and literally hurt your eyes when you look at them :)

TU Eindhoven has been able to organise housing for me, very close to the university and at a reasonable price. Unfortunately I will have to share a kitchen with 4 other people. Tomorrow I'm off to see the HR people again and sort out some admin stuff, and I will also meet with some housing agents to see if I will be able to organise housing on my own.

My first visit to TU Eindhoven

TU/e Main Building, originally uploaded by gniezen.

I had to get up at 05h00 this morning to make the early morning commute to Eindhoven in order to be there at 08h30 for Central Introduction Day, which gave me the opportunity to meet some fellow PhD students and learn more about Eindhoven and the university. In our goodie bags they handed out for free was a copy of the "Holland Handbook" (a very interesting book on living in the Netherlands - how to arrange housing, pay taxes, health care etc.) and a book called "The Thinking Pill" written by TU/e professors on how they think technology will change our lives.

The other students in the group are really from all over the world, including Italy, Venezuela, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, China and Taiwan. I met two people (one from Turkey and one from the Ukraine) who was familiar with and have actually tasted South African wine. Oh, and of course everybody knows about the 2010 World Cup! :P

The building in the picture above is the TU/e main building, which houses the Industrial Design department, as well as a few other departments and administration. There's even a hairdresser and the "Beeldbank" inside. The Beeldbank is a gallery where you may (as a member of TU/e staff) select a graphic/painting and borrow it for a year, after which you must return it and get another one.

At the sports centre you pay about 70 euros per year for a sports card, which you can then use for access to all the sports/activities they offer (with the exception of the sauna and sunbeds). So I'll be able to play squash, gym and swim (in the only indoor university swimming pool in the Netherlands) all for a one-time fee. Yay! :) Funnily enough, you'll have to prove to them that you know how to use gym equipment (after which you are certified with a sticker on your sport card), or you will have to attend an introductory course in fitness before using the gym.

De Zevenhuizerplas

Euro Fun Centre, originally uploaded by gniezen.

This afternoon I took a walk to the "plas" (dam) close to my grandparents' home where I'm staying for the next few days. I realised that I've been to the plas quite a few times during the past few years - the first time was in 2003 while on holiday with my parents, then in 2006 before going to Switzerland for a conference, and then again in 2008 before going to England for another conference.

The Zevenhuizerplas is located on the river Rotte (where Rotterdam gets her name from) and is only about 1.5km wide. There was quite a lot to see: People walking their dogs (this afternoon I saw a lady with at least 10 dogs!), people on horses, people jogging, lots of swans and ducks, and one guy was even flying a kite.

Tomorrow I'm going to TU Eindhoven for an introduction programme that starts at 08h00, so I'll have to get on the metro at 06h00 here in Rotterdam as the total trip takes about 2 hours (and a return train ticket is about 30 euros).

Saying goodbye and my first few hours in the Netherlands

At Jo'burg airport checking in, originally uploaded by gniezen.

So I said goodbye to family and friends, breezed through security and customs, and started my adventure to the Netherlands. After an uneventful flight to Zurich (during which I fell asleep halfway during my first in-flight movie), I had another short flight to Amsterdam.

After collecting my baggage I realised that they must have opened my suitcase (both locks were gone) - luckily I don't think anything was removed, and I they probably opened the suitcase due to the portable hard drive (and Arduino :P ) inside possibly looking quite peculiar on an x-ray machine.

I met with my aunt and grandma and we had a short drive to Rotterdam, after stopping to buy mocha "vlaai" (a super-delicious mocha cake thingy) at one of the Schiphol airport shops.

This afternoon I managed to get Internet on my cell phone (10 euros buys you a prepaid SIM card and a month's Internet) and a metro card (7.50 euros for the card and another 10 euros credit, of which 1.15 euros got deducted after I travelled through about 4 stations).

Check out the Flickr set for more photos!