Today’s Google annual Summer Picnic, and coincidentally happens to fall on the first of August.

It was a lovely, bright and shiny day.. so pretty that i got to office at 9 to finish some python coding for the week before rushing off to the picnic at noon.

So me and atul grabbed our bikes and headed down to Shoreline Amphitheatre, where the festivities and fun fair were being held.

Atul wanted to wear his sunglasses to look cool but i think sunglasses were pretty much neccessary in the blazing sun. It was pleasantly cool though, about 22 °C. (71 °F)

Biking down to the parking area, we were aghast to see..

TONs of google bikes! (GBikes)
These cute blue packages are available free to Googlers and their guests to ride around the Google campus but I had no idea there were so many of them around..

Disembarking from our bikes, we got our free gifts (A Google Kite!), then headed in.

Google air balloon things like this were all over the place.

By now, it was drawing close to 1pm, our stomachs were growling, so time for..

food. foc for Googlers as always =)
Today was a barbeque as expected.. beef brisket and chicken with bbq sauce.

Next we headed to the amphitheatre where several Googlers were performing.
There was this really cool thing that flashes on the screen after every performance, it was a clap o meter!

soo cool! it actually *measures* the volume of the clapping and cheering and streams the resulting ‘diagnosis’ right to the clap o meter!

Following that we strolled down to the main carnival area where huge crowds of Googlers were.

There was a..

minature pool for the kids..

a gigantic slide..

foosball. yes. real foosball. =)

We went around, played a couple of the typical games at the funfair, then we came to this booth that was surround by Googlers. A closer look revealed 3 huge animals – A handsome horse, a docile cow, and a fluffy llama.

So after a little observation, I deduced the llama is crazy.
Why so? you ask me.
It’s actually a hungry, crazy llama.
The llama was catwalking around its pen, oblivious to everyone around him, looking into every crack and crevice for some dry grass to chew on. And i mean every.

Crazy llama sniffing for grass inside the baby stroller, much to the amusement of everyone around.

Obviously we couldn’t pass down a chance to feed the crazy llama, so we did.

Me + Llama = 299792458

Atul + Llama = 94213684

Then there was this cute Google train that chugged around..

Say hi to the Googlers stuffed inside the google train!

Time flies when you’re having fun and it was 4pm only too soon..

Farewell picture next to the Google banner.

After a tiring day, I headed over to Mountain View with my roommate Moss for dinner. Even though it was 6.45pm, the sun was still bright in the sky, casting long shadows on everything. Photo opportunity!

Downtown Mountain View.

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An interesting endnote:
I was having dinner with Moss at Xanh (the vietnamese restaurant downtown), when the waitress clearing Moss’ dishes accidentally knocked a (eaten) bone down to the floor. But instead of picking it up, she turned to Moss and intoned, “You did not see this. It did not happen.“ Then she turned away and strutted off with the dirty dishes.

Startled, Moss and I stared at each other for a couple of seconds, then we burst out laughing. lol.. next time I will like, take my friend’s 100 dollar note out of his wallet right in front of him and tell him, “You did not see me take your money. You will pretend nothing has happened. You will go back to whatever you are doing. You wil..“
Perhaps I will have a 1% chance of actually succeeding in the brainwash.
But lol.. something hilarious to try out anyway.