In my early work, my time in the batting cage, that's serious, and that's when I feel like I'm really working. That's where I have to lock in on my approach, make sure my mechanics are right, and make sure my mindset is right for the upcoming game. But then, when the game comes up, it's a game! You're supposed to have fun when you play games.
Maybe I'm delusional but I'm usually funny. It's not 100% but I have a pretty good batting average.
Throughout my career I have done it my way and used my stubborn streak. I thought the best way to captain was to shut out all the noise - I did it with my batting and thought 'that has served me well, so why change it?'
If someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don't want me to open the batting for England, it's going to hurt.
From a purely selfish, batting point of view, I couldn't bat any better than the 2010-11 Ashes and then in India in 2012. That was as good as I could play.
I'm not some little soft touch. I will never take a backward step when batting, but I want to be respected as a nice guy, too.
I've had a go at captaincy. Batting and bowling and captaincy turned out to be a bit too much.
I had to stop being a student idiot and become more sensible and organised and that definitely improved my batting. I also reacted far more quickly to situations in Test cricket because I'd been a county captain. It made a huge difference.
I don't want to overplay the diary's significance, but it's a really helpful batting aid. It's not an obsession because I don't spend more than 10 or 20 minutes writing a day - and not necessarily every day. I might write in it three days in a row and then not the next four. It depends on the situation.
I loved captaining and trying to win games - but I wasn't enjoying batting any more.
