I created my blog in 2009 when I was a young, naive, fresh-out-of-college lad looking into making it in the corporate world. From my humble beginnings at ABS-CBN, to my now esteemed role in my current company, I've always maintained chronicling my adventures in this tiny online space. Looking back, I started this blog because I had a lot of "feelings" back then that I didn't know how to address them and putting all these feelings in writing just made the world a little better. I would eventually make these "feelings" post private and transition from making it my online diary into a space where I can write down memories of my food and travel adventures. 

The name 'Ochi in the City' came about because, well if it isn't obvious yet, I'm very sentimental and wanting to document everything has always been my character. If not for Multiply shutting down in (2013/14), I would actually have photos to show for it because it was practically my dump lol. Come to think of it, 2009 was over 10yrs ago. I've been working my ass off in the city, hustling and bustling day in day out, enduring hellish traffic and wasting all my time just to get to work and get back home and...all for what? This pandemic made me realize a ton of things and one of them is that I don't want to waste any more of my time living in the city. 

During the pandemic, I was cooped up in a 57-sqm loft and you know what, it's pretty spacious if you're considering how people live in Manila right? But is it something we just tolerate or is it really how we wanna live? My answer was the former and this led me to exploring options outside of the city. My first option was to move back to Pampanga, not with my parents but probably close to the vicinity where they live. Second is move to a place close to them, but also close to Manila so when the time comes for us to go back to the office, I can still afford the daily drive. The latter seemed like a more feasible option and even if traffic will be bad when the time comes, it's pretty much the same given I live around the Ortigas business district and a 2km ride takes me from 30mins to an hour. I'd rather do so and live in a place with more space for plants and everything else in between. 

Given that, I decided I'd be moving to Malolos, Bulacan. It's the sweet spot between wanting to be with my family more, affording myself more space and still just the right distance between my home and work. Malolos is considered a city so I don't think I'll have to change my blog name, but being far from the busy streets of Manila--I probably won't have as much content on what or where to eat and i thought I'd have FOMO but you know what, it feels like a breath of fresh air. I mean, I still work with brands every now and then but I also have more time to be more creative with the content I put out. I've been wanting to do something like "A day in the life" type of vlog and I've finally had the time and space to do so! If you want to see more of my vlogs, check out the video below. And oh, for those from Malolos, see you around!