I have played some one-day internationals at the Riverside - or the "Riverdog" as we still call it in the north-east - but this will be my first Test match on my home ground.
It's a very special moment for me, and a bit of a dream come true really.
 Celebrating a wicket at Old Trafford with Monty and Matt Prior |
Durham have only been a first-class county for 15 years but it just shows what a county can achieve when you have so much ambition.
It is excellent for the region, and excellent for the kids in the region who try to emulate the likes of myself and Steve Harmison.
I have a lot of family and friends in the area who will come down to watch - although we recently started being charged tax on the complimentary tickets we get given for every England match, so I may have to think about how many tickets I get in future!
In the one-day internationals we have played here, I have not tended to do too well. I put some pressure on myself, but hopefully I'll go out there and relax, and play as I normally do.
The other difference is that both me and Steve will be staying with our families, rather than at the team hotel. We will not miss any of the team stuff though - the meetings and the nets.
One person who will not be playing a Test on his home ground this time is Liam Plunkett.
Whenever people go through bad runs of form the first thing people say is that the technique is wrong.
But usually it's a mental thing. Liam proved when he played for Durham that he is a very, very good bowler who bowls at a good pace and swings the ball.
When he got into the international stage he found there was a bit of extra pressure, but he's got all the talent in the world and I'm sure he'll come back.
Ryan Sidebottom is a fine example of what you can learn in county cricket.
He had a taste of international cricket in 2001, went back to his county and now he knows what he's all about and has come back a stronger bowler.
Hopefully Liam can do the same thing, and maybe it won't take him six years!
The Old Trafford Test was a fascinating match and I spent a lot of time fielding at slip to Monty Panesar.
 | Shivnarine Chanderpaul's century at Old Trafford was incredible, and incredible is the right word |
I love the position of slip. You get to watch the game from a position where you can see what the bowlers are trying to do to get people out.
It's actually very hard with the slow bowler on, because you don't actually see the ball for the first yard it's coming to you and you have to pick it up from there.
I've only had six months of slip duty - Marcus Trescothick was the catcher before - and I am still learning my trade there.
It's a great position to field and it's going OK at the moment, though I did drop one there the other day.
We won the Test, but we had to spend a lot of time watching Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit his incredible unbeaten century over the final two days.
What Shivnarine showed is that you can do almost anything if you work out a way of playing on a particular type of wicket.
Incredible is the right word and it was actually quite frightening to think they might get 455 runs to win.
We were wondering if we were ever going to win the game - thank goodness we did!
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