When someone says, 'How long do you see yourself captaining for?' you don't really know.
Relief isn't quite the right word but there's satisfaction at a job well done and I'm proud to say that I'm an Ashes-winning captain. Without taking it too personally, it has a nice little ring to it.
The most important opinions to me are those that belong to the guys in the changing room.
The beauty of cricket is that there are so many different opinions as to the best way to do something and at times it is easier to see something when you're not emotionally involved in the game and not responsible for the decision. You can go and have a cup of tea and look at it from a different point of view.
When you step out of the team environment you think, 'Wow, I'm England captain and we've just won the Ashes.'
The biggest thing was probably a better understanding of the mental side of cricket and also the technical challenges I have in my game. Those two things happened in a very short space of time which changed me as a player.
Everyone has technical issues - you have them until you die - but you have to be aware of them in a certain way.
When you are so close to something, it's like a bar of soap - if someone says hold on to it, the harder you squeeze, the quicker it pops out of your hand.
I'm a country boy at heart. I love it when you've got your boots on and you're standing in three inches of cow muck.
In the end, playing for England means very little if you don't see the rest of the world around you. It is why I hate prima donnas and arrogance.
I think my general view of day-night Test cricket is that there is definitely something there that the ICC can keep looking at because it moves the game forward with timing and allows more people to come and watch.
That is one of the great things about Test cricket, the ball. Sometimes it swings conventionally, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it reverses.
I am much more happy in a country pub with 10 blokes having a pint than going to a night club.
The stats suggest that I'm not a dasher. It doesn't mean I can't play the shots, but when you find a method in four-day and Test cricket that works for you, you stick with it.
I love cricket but I like being away from it as well.
You need to come to terms with the fact that you are not an international cricketer anymore and that's certainly difficult to come to terms with. But then I love going to my farm and spending time with my family. Drop and pick up my kids from school and play cricket as well.
If you have lost matches and not played to potential, criticism will come your way. Critics and media will say what they see and take you on. They will say things which you might not like to hear. But that's professional sport.
It hurts like hell when you come into a contest and you end up being second best.
Self-belief is certainly an issue you need to make sure you look after when you've lost heavily in two games.
It is frustrating when you go all that way, you train, and you just don't turn up. It does happen. If you play 100-odd Test matches, there's going to be little periods when you don't score the runs.
