Firstly, Aunty wants to share her current favorite granola bar – 18 Rabbits. This bar has been in Aunty’s purse for ages – carrying it around in case of hunger attacks while away from home, but never trying it – yet. During the very (very) long car ride to Google’s Mountain View corporate offices, Aunty needed something to eat and opened this stored bar without any expectations. It is rather flat (thus being easy to keep in purses), and “sounded” healthy, which meant that it might be not so delicious.
It is gluten free, certified organic, no refined sugars, and made with coconut, pecans, pumpkin & sesame seeds, cranberries, and whole grain oats. This particular bar was the Cherry, Dark Chocolate & Almond.
Normally, Aunty doesn’t like granola bars with chocolate because the chocolate isn’t very good and makes it more of a sweet snack, but this one was el perfecto. The dark chocolate was sparse and fine, the texture was chewy but didn’t stick to teeth, pleasant to the taste buds, and it made Aunty’s tummy happy, like a welcome guest and not like a bomb of grainy oatmeal. The entire bar was made with finely chopped ingredients all smashed together for easy eating . LOVE!
Aunty is now going to actively search out and buy another one for her purse.
Googling
#1 son (only son), the crown prince of the family, works at Google. He was always a computer nerd even though we didn’t have a computer at home until 1990. In this day and age, young people have a great edge over us old people – computers and such have made them smarter than us. Our advantage is that we are wiser.
Google recently sponsored a “Take Your Parents to Work Day”. It was like a huge college campus with a variety of free restaurant quality food in every building and in excellent food trucks. Free quality snacks and drinks in convenient locations. Recycle bins, personal gardening plots, ample parking, easy secured building entry and shuttle buses to the shop, demos and expos.
At the end of the day, we all gathered in a stadium that had a Harry Potterish canopy to hear about Google’s current and next phasing from co-founder Sergei Brin and CEO Sundar Pichal. They were very unassuming and nice! Loon is a Google project that brings balloon powered internet to remote areas. Nest is like having a personal butler. Medical tools for eye disease diagnosis to prevent blindness. Couldn’t remember all the other stuff they talked about but Aunty walked away with a good feeling about this company. It is a company that seems to want to help others and give us a more convenient life with self driving cars and free apps.
It ended with a queue of parents asking questions or making comments. Aunty refrained from joining that queue to avoid embarrassing #1 son. If Aunty had gone up there, she would have suggested gifting each parent with one share of Google stock (that would have gotten a standing ovation), making a “find my car” app so she doesn’t forget where she last parked, and having them hire Aunty to be part of their think tank with her non-techie point of view of what would make life easier and better for “maturing” people.
It was a full and wonderful day, under a cool cloudy sky. Aunty’s absolute favorite part of it was in the bathrooms. Every stall in every Google building had heated toilet seats and electronic bidets. Wow! Aunty was too chicken to try it out in case water squirted all over the place, so next time Aunty will bring a change of clothes and sit in the lap of luxury and enjoy.
Thank you for my laughs for the day. I especially liked the suggestion for Google to “gift each parent” stock and hire Aunty as an advisor. (I actually think those are great ideas, although they made laugh, too, Maybe it was the way you introduced them). #1 Son should be proud to have a mom like you.
Aloha Estelle! I believe in thinking big, no harm in asking, especially in a blog situation. Not sure if my son is proud to have a mom like me – if anything, he knows better than to expect the “norm” from me. However, I do try to tame myself, but self control is not my strong suit.
What a great experience. Sounds like your son has an enjoyable job. Good for him.
Ahhhhh, so that’s where you went! Very, very cool!
Aunty, you are outrageously hilarious in how you juxtaposed the gourmet meals with the Toto washlet, which is probably one of the greatest innovations & the easiest to operate, since the Japanese use clear pictorials, which guide the user to control flow, temperature, force. No spills or splashes, only cleansing & saving on toilet paper. When will the self-driven vehicles be made available to the kupuna?
Loved your welcome sign photos too! Tutu
Ah, Tutu, the things to come will make our lives so much easier! I am guessing that we will be able to afford and buy those self driving cars in about 3 years. I would love to try out those Toto bidets – though it would be a weird thing to have at showrooms that sell them. I understand these are common everywhere in Japan, so maybe that is where Aunty will go, one of these days.
You’re so lucky! I would love to visit there, I’ve heard so many crazy stuff that they have for their employees I guess I have to see it to believe it. Is it true that they have all of those amenities so they can work you to the bone and you don’t ever have to leave??? If so, is it worth it? hmmmm…
The CEO and co-founder were SO low key, wearing casual clothes – shorts, tshirt, sandals, and they provide for the employees the things that they would like if they could design their ideal work environment. #1 is providing good food, with the emphasis on healthy and fresh. My son seems to be not over-worked. He has normal daily hours and weekends off, as well as time to take his mother on shopping sprees. Poor thing. He had to put up with me browsing for hours in stores, but he didn’t complain. Good boy.