More Gardening.

I did some more tidying in the garden over the weekend then Me and Amanda went to Homebase to buy some flowers and plants, so the place looks litle more colorful now. We also started the mamoth task of washing baby clothes ready for her arrival. She has more clothes than Me and Amanda put together. lol. Anyway, few garden piccies below.

Babies New Set of Wheels

The other day our new pram for the baby turned up. The pram was great fully paid for by my parents. We opted the the Quinny Buzz 3 wheeler as it is a decent size when collapsed. We also got a car seat and the ISOFIX base for the car, but that hasn't turned up yet. In a few weeks hopefully.


We now have pretty much all we need for the babies arrival now. Amanda's Mum bought us a Natures Nest, which is a fancy crib essentially which is supposed to help the baby sleep better. We hope :-)


We are just playing the waiting game now awaiting for her arrival.

Tidying Up The Garden

Today I spent some time tidying up the garden. I cleared out all the weeds and crap that accumulated over the winter. I also dug out the space under the hedge and put bark chippings down. The garden is looking quite tidy now we just need to get flowers in the planters. This should be done next week.

One Blog Becomes Two!!

For a long time now this blog has had a bit of an identity crisis. I have mixed posts about my audio endeavors and my personal life in one place and was, to be honest, a little too lazy to do anything about it. Now Amanda is pregnant and due in May this blog, as you can imagine, will start to fill up with baby pictures for our families to keep up to date on the babies progress.

Therefore I have created a new blog called The Creaturephonic Workshop where I will write about music production. This new blog will replace the old News page on the Haunted House Records site. I will write articles on music production, write gear and music reviews and also keep you up to date on Haunted House Records News.

So!, if you come to this blog to read about my music related stuff, please go to this address. If you like reading your blogs via an RSS feed then point your feed reader here.

If you are not interested in the music stuff and want to just see what Me and Amanda have been getting up too then you can stay on this blog.

Amy's New Bedroom

The past few weeks we have been busily decorating Amy's new bedroom and today we have pretty much finished it off. We assembled the cot yesterday and Amanda attached the mobile and cot bumpers etc.


This morning I put up the curtain rail, which for me is a major feat as I am certainly not Mr DIY, but I am getting a lot better at this stuff :-)



All that is left to do is to get some extra pictures for the walls. I really want to get 2 frames pictures of Princess Peaches from Super Mario. She is all pink and princess like, certainly will suit the room. I have the pictures already I just need to get them printed in A3 and put them in frames, so that should be done by next week.



The room looks really good. My favorite room in the house infact. It makes you want to be a kid again.




The picture above is a night light that Amanda's Aunt Sandra got us for Christmas. I couldn't resist doing a little arty photo. I am a geek after all.

3D baby scan

Today we had a 3D baby scan at the Nuffield private hospital in Derby. This scan allows you to see the baby in more detail. I have included a few of the pictures below. Those who have me added as a friend on facebook can see more of

Snow, Snow and More Snow.

In the past couple of weeks have had the most snow the country has had in years. I really like the snow my self even though most people moan about it. I find it quite exciting personally.



Getting to the train station through 6 inches of snow was good fun and the trains were surprisingly reliable for a change. The morning walk through the snow was made even more atmospheric by listening to Monolakes, Polygon Cities album. Makes you feel like your in siberia near an oil pipeline. I guess you need to listen to the album to hear what I am on about.



Unfortunately the snow has mostly melted now except for some at the top of the estate. It was nice whilst it lasted. Today is Friday the 13th and I mananged to get through the day without tripping over or slipping on ice.



Tomorrow we are going to have a 4D scan of the baby done. We dont need to do it for any particular medical reason, its just you can get a good look at the baby. This is a present for Amandas birthday. Hopefully we will get some good shots. They will go on the blog naturally :-)

Started Decorating

A couple of weeks ago I started decorating the spare room ready for the babies arrival. We first needed to strip off all the wallpaper which was a royal pain in the arse as it was all plastic coated, but we bought a steamer and got it all down in a couple of days.


The room has now been painted, but those pictures wont be taken until tomorrow when we assemble the cot etc.



We have gone for cream walls as we want to sell the house next year. I am getting some pictures made with the Super Mario character Princess Peaches made up. They should look great on the wall.

Started Tidying the Babies Room

Now that the arrival of the baby is getting a lot closer we have to get the spare room sorted out. Today we went out and bought a baby changing unit and set of drawers. Once we got it back I started sorting out the spare room. I have booked some time off in Feb to paint the room, but I started today by dismantling the spare bed. We are getting rid of this during the week, so guests have to use an airbed from now on :-)


Now that the room has been tidied, we assembled the baby changing unit. Amanda had loads of fun folding up all the baby clothes she has bought already and put then in the drawers.



The room will look very good once we have decorated it. We have decided to paint the walls in a plain neutral color as we want to move house in a years time, but I want to get some 'Princess Peaches' pictures for the wall. Princess Peaches is a super mario character in case you haven't come across the name before :-)



We already have the cot bed ready to assemble and we are getting the pram soon. We don't have a huge amount left to get now, but still a fair amount of money to spend. :-)

Amandas 20 Week Scan

Today Amanda had her 20 week scan at Derby City Hospital. The scan is to check for any abnormalities. Thankfully everything was OK and Amanda and the baby are both in great condition.


We also found out the sex of the baby and we are pleased to say that we are having a baby girl. We are still thinking about names. A boys name was always going to be easy for us to pick as we decided on that ages ago, but we keep on thinking of different girls names. Our current favorite is Aimee Olivia Haunts.


I have taken some photos of the scan pictures. I don't think these pictures are as good as they could have been. The woman doing the scan at the hospital had some much better positions on her screen, but she printed these ones. Not to matter though. There is still a lot of detail in these pictures.



A little while ago Amanda bought a gadget called an Ultrasound Doppler. This is a small gadget that lets you listen to the babies heart beat. Amanda, knowing how much of an audio and music geek I am, got a Doppler that also had a recording line output. So I present to you Aimee's (name subject to change) first piece of ambient music called, Heartbeat ;-) You can download and listen to the MP3 file from this link.

Happy New Year

Well this is going to be the last post on this blog for 2008. So in the tradition of this site, here is a piccy of some scantily clad young ladies. It is been a really good year. Amanda is expecting our first child and we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. At work I got a good promotion, and musically I have done loads of releases and started building a little sound design business. Lets hope 2009 is just a feature packed.

Have a good new year. I hope the hangovers clear quickly. See you next year ;-)

Christmas 2008

The past few weeks have been quite hectic. The other week We visited my parents in London. Then I was in work up til Christmas Eve. Would have been nice to book some extra time off before hand but I had run out of holidays.



Me and Amanda spent Christmas day at home together. We had a really relaxed day. We got up fairly late for us :-) Opened pressies and I made a huge dinner. This year we treated ourselves to a Nintendo Wii and Wii fit. We spent most of the day playing on this. It was great fun.



On boxing day we drove up to Amanda's Mums house for dinner. In the evening we played the traditional Christmas bingo. This was good fun. Everyone contributes bingo prizes up the cost of a pound and they go into a big bag with numbers on. The winner of each bingo game picks a number out of a hat and they get a present.



The next day we didn't do much except relax, play more games, and watch TV. The next day we drove back home. Feeling like we had had too much fun we decided to do some menial jobs like clear out the loft. This took a good 3 hours and yesterday we filled up the car and took all the rubbish to the dump. We really know how to have fun ;-) But the house does look a lot tidier though. I am going to be doing some decorating in Feb for the babies bedroom so we wanted to start getting rid of any junk. The spare bed is being thrown out at the end of Jan ready for a cot bed to go in its place.



Now we are just getting ready for the new year. Amanda has had to work today, so I have just kept myself to myself for most of the day. Went to the shops and done some work on my website.


Tonight we are going to have a few drinks (non alcoholic for Amanda) and get stuck into several rounds of Tiger Woods PGA golf on the Wii. Which by the way is an excellent game once you have got used to the controls.

That time of year again!!

Well it's that time of year again. Christmas is in only a few weeks away. Where has this year gone!! Today we went out and got our tree. We got a real tree this year as we are spending Christmas at home. Getting the tree in the car was interesting and the hoover worked overtime picking up needles, but Amanda has finally got it decorated :-) Just a few more weeks of work until a little time off. Huray!

BBC Good Food Show 2008

Yesterday Me and Amanda went to the BBC Good Food Show at the Birmingham NEC. This year we had tickets to see a live demonstration by the Hairy Bikers. We set off about 7.30 in the morning so we could get parked. Getting there was quite straight forward and we got in to the show really quickly.


At 10.30 there was a Hairy Bikers demonstration on the British Stage so we sat down to see them. We were seeing them again later in the main theater, but we didn't mind seeing them twice. As you would expect, they were very funny and make a good double act.



This demo lasted around 35 minutes. Once we had finished here we went for a look around the show floor testing lots of the different products on offer. At 12.30 we headed to the main theater so see the Hairy Bikers again. We had seats booked right at the front so had a great view.



Afterward we hurried to the Book People stand where the Bikers were due to do a book signing. We already had their latest book, so we bought their first book ready for them to sign. The queue was quite large. More people turned up for the bikers than security expected so they had to try and improvise a better system. We only had to wait 20 minutes though before it was our turn. They were nice and polite and a good laugh. I bet their hands were hurting after signing so many books though.



We then went for another look around the show floor. Amanda wanted to go to the Gordon Ramsey book signing. We bought his latest book, 'Cooking For Friends', and went over to the queue. Unfortunately they would only allow 1 person per book to queue so I could not meet him.



I didn't mind too much though, whilst Amanda queued I went to the wine tasting section of the show. By the time I went back to meet her I was quite pissed. No, make that completely steaming :-)



Amanda was luck a love struck teenager when she met Gordon. For some bizarre reason she fancies him. God knows why, he looks like an old wrinkled leather football. We must get Amanda's glasses changed :-)



After the book signing we had another look through some stands and made a few purchases. We then headed back to the car for the drive home. We had a really good day, but was knackered by the time we got home.

Haunts Jr.

A picture speaks a thousand words. Amanda is 13 weeks pregnant. She had her first scan today. We are both thrilled. I guess this means I will be doing some more decorating soon :-) We have kept it quiet so far just to make sure everything is ok, but all family have been told now :-)

Firefox FTP Client

When updating the Haunted House Records website I normally use an FTP client called Smart FTP to send the files across to the server. This used to be a free program and it was quite good. But it has now changed over to a paid for program. I was going to buy it, but someone recommended me an FTP client called FireFTP that integrates in with the firefox browser. I gave it a try yesterday and it is excellent. Really easy to use and fast and more importantly, FREE.

You can download it from here. So sorry Smart FTP guys, your software is good, but this is better :-)

Family Wedding In London

Last weekend we went down to London on the Saturday for My cousin Claire's wedding. The wedding was in Chingford and the reception was near Chigwell. We set off on Saturday morning fairly early and drove to my parents house where we got changed.



From my Parents house we drove to the church. It was quite nice going back to Chingford as I was born there so it is always nice to go back there. The wedding started at 2pm and my family on my Mums side were as rowdy as usual. With the typical heckling in church. It was quite funny.

After the religious bit was done and dusted we headed off to the hotel for the reception. We all had a really nice meal and then got ready for the evening party. The wine was flowing a little too well by this point. God only knows how much we got through.

By the end of the evening I was well and truly trollied. The next day I had an evil hangover. I don't really drink a huge amount these days, so when I do, it hits me like a ton of bricks :-) Was a good day though.

The Chaser UK Film Trailer

A while ago I wrote on this blog that I had provided the music for a film trailer. Well that trailer has now been released and the film is out in the cinema. You can view the trailer below. The track I provided was Hive of the Nightmares and Dreamscapes EP. The track is more of a dark ambient piece. It's the ghostly noises etc you can hear in the background.

Family Wedding

Last weekend we took a break out of our busy house re-decorating schedule to go down to my parents in Essex for a family wedding. My uncle Trevor and Aunt Gill were celebrating there 25th wedding anniversary, so they decided to renew their wedding vows.


I got the train down Friday night as Amanda had to drive from Wales. On Saturday I had to go out to get some new trousers and a shirt, as I have lost so much weight this year that my old suit doesn't fit anymore. In fact you could probably fit both Me and Amanda in it :-)

The wedding started at 4.30 so we drove to Basildon in plenty of time with my Dad. After the churchy bit we went back to there house for a piss up. They made a very strong punch which seemed to be never ending. I think it was 4 parts alcohol and 6 parts rocket fuel. Well good it was. I had a bit of a sore head the next day.

The next day Me and Amanda had to drive back to Derby so we could carry on decorating the house. I have had the past couple of days off work to concentrate on it. Over the past week we have repainted the small bedroom (my office), both hall ways, the bathroom, and down stairs toilet. This includes walls, skirting boards, stairs and ceilings. Today we had a professional carpet cleaner come around to do all the carpets. We are nearly done, just some small jobs left now. The kitchen floor is hopefully being replaced next week too.

Interesting Business Books

I recently read a couple of interesting business books that I thought I would mention here. The first is called 'The Long Tail' by Chris Anderson. This is essentially a popular economics books that discusses how the internet has changed the face of product distribution. These days, you no longer need a "hit" to survive in a market place. This book discusses all those niche products that are not hits, but can still generate lots of revenue because we no longer need limited shelf space in a shop. Instead we have the Internet, and long with the Internet we have generated unlimited demand. This book is relevant for all sorts of products. So if you sell music, self published books, photos, paintings etc, I recommend reading this book, it was certainly very interesting.



Next up we have a book called 'Buzz Marketing' by Mark Hughes. This is a book about marketing funnily enough. The book talks about how you don't actually need a huge marketing budget to make you products and company known. It discusses using creativity to generate buzz around a product. The author used to be the marketing director for half.com. One of the case studies is how they generated buzz in the press, by renaming a town in America to half.com. This book has certainly given me lots of ideas for the marketing of 'Electronic Critters'.

Both books are quite short so don't take too long to read. I highly recommend them though, they give you a different perspective on running small Internet businesses.