Do you know what the hardest thing about being a county cricketer is?

Would it be facing a quick bowler on a sporting pitch? Or trying to counteract Shane Warne on the last day of a four day game?

Or would it be having to organise your life for the six months between the last day of one season and the first day of the next?

Not many of you would choose the last answer but for me, the first two are the fun, if challenging, aspects of the job. The last is a hassle and a chore I could do without.

It can be quite unsettling having a job for only half the year. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do and know I am extraordinarily privileged to have been given the chance to do it.

But from about June onwards, the cricketer gets a nagging feeling in the back of his head about his winter employment.

The nagging goes away when your mind is concentrated on a game but then, on a rare day off, it comes back.

As the months of July and August whizz past in a frenzy of wickets, runs and sunshine, September is on you before you realise it and you are only weeks away from what is effectively unemployment.

This might sound crazy to you. You are saying to yourself that you would chew your arm off to be given six months of every year off to do as you would.

But the human being is a species that needs to be kept busy and needs to be challenged on a frequent basis.

That is how mankind has evolved. Man needs to work and it is not natural to have six months of every year with nothing to do.

"So? Get a job!" I hear you holler. Not so easy. Who wants to employ someone for half the year?

"Ok then, go abroad and play cricket'." That is fine for those without a family with a life and a job in England that you would have to leave behind. I am getting to the stage of my cricketing career when I have to think about life after cricket and the winters should be an opportunity to try out various post cricket options. So if anyone has any ideas or offers in this respect, they would be most welcome.

While the days off have been filled with such mundane thoughts as the real world, luckily there have been few of them as the season hots up.

Three wins in the last four championship games and a six game unbeaten run in the National League constitutes probably our best all-round cricket since the middle of last year. Both leagues however are still wide open.

In a hectic last month, our season could go any number of ways.

Win all our remaining games and we could retain the county championship and be promoted in the one-dayers: It would be our most successful season ever.

Lose all our games, however, and it could become an annus horriblis. Second division in both formats next year.

Surely it is the most thrilling run in to the end of season for many years.