As many of you know the photo shoot took place just over 3 weeks ago. It took exactly 21 days from the shoot to the calendars being signed and sent out this Monday just gone.  Jill tells me that a lot of you have been getting a bit anxious as to when they are going to arrive, but it should be any time now, if you haven't already received it.

If we do one next year, maybe we should start in April!

Thanks also to those of you who have joined the Ben Cohen Gold Membership. I know Jill is arranging for some of you to come up, see a match, have dinner in the Insider Suite and then I will be able to come over and say hello after the match. It will be good to see you.

Rugby at Sale is going really well. You may have seen an interview that I did with The Rugby Club recently. You will have seen the family with Rolo (the chocolate lab) and Barney our horse. It's funny, when you do an interview for the TV, it quite often comes out completely different to what you thought it would.

I am getting asked the question time and time again, do I have the desire to play for England again. The answer is always the same - of course I do! But I am realistic and know that my performance at Sale needs to come first and then who knows - you can't rely on past performances, it has to be how you are playing now that matters. I will always want to play for my country.

Sale are starting to play really well now and the performance against Harlequins in the Heineken Cup last weekend surprised a few people I think. It was a great team performance and players like Charlie, Dwayne and David Seymour were fantastic - but it really was a whole team effort. There were a few beers on the bus on the way back to celebrate - shame I had to get out at Watford!

This coming weekend we have Quins again, this time at home. So it will be a chance to really show what we are made of.

Christmas is coming fast isn't it?  We are training Christmas Eve and Boxing Day so not much changes for us rugby players. Looking forward to having all the family over for Christmas Day and seeing the girls open their presents. It is going to be so SO noisy.

So, here's to a great 2010 for you all. Once again, thanks for your support throughout 2009. It has turned out to be a good year for me, I hope it has for you.

All the best

Ben