38: "In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion"

When I quit my job, it felt like a snap decision. In the days afterwards, I started to feel differently. It felt like I had swam up from the depths of a lake and finally broken the surface. I didn't know I'd been kicking underwater for so long.Even though I was excited to be free, I was worried about working without a workplace. I had worked at home before, and it had been a disaster. Once I left my job, however, it turned out that self-control is a much easier skill to learn if you're using it to achieve something you actually care about. An important point I'd somehow never appreciated before.Sitting at home all day seems incredibly easy or unbelievably hard depending on how you look at it. Your home is where all your comforts are. It's where your stash of Nissin noodles is. It's also hard to relax in your living room if you've spent all day sitting there with your head in your hands because something you need to write just won't come out of your head.This weekend marks two years since I packed my desk belongings into two Lidl bags and then threw it all away when I got home. Every weekday since, I've sat at my kitchen table surrounded by piles of magazines and notebooks and felt like I was achieving more than I've ever achieved in my life. Instead of living up to my fears: too lonely, too quiet, too sad, too distracting; working at home has made my house a protective space where my mind can grow. I solidify my ideas here. I'm not beholden to anyone else's moods, tempers, derision or dependency. Under my roof I only have to answer to my own expectations. I can use this lookout point to try and understand the world better.Other Stuff

• A fantastic piece on the vital queer history of Grace Jones' legacy.

• Illustrator Matt Saunders is working on a new personal project documenting his recent trip to Japan, so now seems like a great time to share his Yorkshire Dales work again. I love it.

• I really enjoyed this interview with Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk that The Paris Review dug out of the archives this week. He talks about the dangers of speaking wrongly and having your words twisted, particularly when his government campaigned against his work. I also found his attitude to his success interesting. 

• I know this isn't a job mailer, but The Skinny are looking for writers to pitch for their Intersections section -- particularly PoC and LGBTQIA+ voices. (Via a tweet from editor Katie Goh)

• I absolutely loved this heartfelt and fun piece on the newsagents of London. And the photos are something else. Joy!

• Skater Nora Vasconcellos is 100% badass. This rough-cut shows her repeatedly slamming into the floor and just getting up like it's nothing and trying again. By far one of the most inspirational vids I've watched in ages. (See her with most of the falls edited out here from 17.34 -- but just watch the whole of Seance tbh)

• Food chemistry is so fascinating to me. It took restaurant chain two years to come up with a new-improved queso recipe. And smoothness and "meltiness" were priorities over flavour.

• I was super interested to read this story on Waterford Whiskey's website, where they talk about using biodynamics to grow their barley.

• Darjeeling Express owner and activist Asma Khan is a force of nature, and she shows that food is so much more than the simple act of eating. Please read this Lifestyle Asia interview and then this one from The Telegraph India and get to know her.

• Poetry, beer, eco-back-to-basics, hardcore DIY mentality, stove engineering; what's not to love in this piece about Canvas Brewery?

• How a Basque football match brought about the legalisation of the Basque flag.

• And finally... your favourite authors respond to your unsolicited dick pic. My favourite is Virgina Woolf's response. "I took a look at the image, for I had a constant sense of it there, something turgid, something imposing, which I shared neither with my friends nor my Twitter followers."

My Stuff

• Not much to report, I've been busy studying all the things I unwisely signed up for at the same time and trying to get some other writing done.

• However, I have been busy working and will have some articles coming out in the near future!

• Sadly the wine fair I was heading to in Cologne is postponed this weekend. I hope everyone is keeping well and that I can see some of you there soon when it is reorganised.

• I am going to Wales this weekend and decided to learn some Welsh (because of course I did). I found this gem of a YouTube channel and now I can say various greetings while imagining a man waving a shoe around. (Watch it and you'll know what I'm on about.) Hwyl!

Matt Saunders"Yorkshire Dales"