It’s an odd thing, working remotely. Mostly a blessing as I casually drift from bedroom, to kitchen, to office on the morning commute.

Traffic’s hell as I take a long detour around a pile-up of toys and laundry. Finally, and with relief, I settle into my chair and immerse myself: quietly cocooned in noise-canceled serenity. A modest cubbyhole in a sleepy end-terrace, and my own private fortress of solitude.

The engineering team at Stuart is distributed across France, Spain, Poland, and the UK. The majority of us are based in the offices in Paris, Barcelona, and London but a growing number of us perch on a wire and connect in remotely from various workspaces and our own homes.

Gathering us all together for a couple of days is always a lot of fun and very enriching as we renew old bonds and “devirtualize”.

Lunch on the balcony.

This year’s talks take in a wide range of topics, with some tech deep-dives, visions of the future, and a summary of the previous year. To my own personal delight, we have a really entertaining lightning talks session where the floor opens up for anybody to present for five minutes on absolutely any topic. We have lightning-fast presentations on topics ranging from Experimental JS through to Critical Thinking.

As day one draws to a close, I head out early joined by our Scrum Master Stefano and Yohan from the backend team in Paris. We have a special mission to tackle — setting up our pre-dinner entertainment. Back by popular demand, we’re holding a whisky tasting!

Glasses are carefully filled with whiskies from Ireland, Scotland, Japan and the USA. This time we’re experimenting with how the aromas and flavours change when a few drops of water are added. Armed with a detailed spec sheet, we analyse the make-up and flavour of each whisky in true engineering style — a blend of science and sensory mindfulness.

Smelling, tasting, and discussing.

Naturally, once the glasses are empty, it’s time to head out into Barcelona in search of food. We descend on a restaurant in the Eixample neighbourhood for a banquet of local cuisine. Course after course of Spanish specialities: Iberian steak, jamón, baked eggs, giant mussels, Galician octopus, fried padron peppers, and Crema Catalana (a beautiful variation on crème brûlée).