The Diary of a CEO's Wife

I asked the internet a simple question: what tests did you go through in 2025? I shared mine first, lightly, as if listing them might make them less heavy. Former employees threatened my family. Ten months without a salary. My husband was sick for two long months. And in one stretch of hospital time, I went through a hysterectomy , an appendectomy , and kidney stone surgery . It sounds brutal when written down like that. Yet here I am, still standing. Still breathing. Still grateful. Because somehow, in the middle of it all, I never felt abandoned. I truly believe I have a bigger God than my problems. And now, thank God, all is well. What I didn’t expect was how heavy the replies would be. Cancer diagnoses . Consecutive deaths in one family. Betrayals. Scams. Losses layered upon losses. I read them slowly, one by one, my chest tightening. It really has been that kind of year. A year that forces shedding. Like a snake changing its skin, painfully, unwillingly, letting go of what no long...

5am sharp I was awake to pee but then when I opened the window, wow, the sun was slowly rising. I kept the curtain open and enjoyed the golden sky until I fell asleep again 😅 At 7am I woke up again, took my time at the john and showered, and finally get ready for breakfast at the restaurant with hubby at 08:30.  When we arrived at the restaurant it was so full! The breakfast options was quite plenty but not too much. The taste was so so, nothing extraordinary. Well maybe except bubur sumsum . But the most annoying part was that the food stalls was put outside, in the smoking area. I hate to line up with smoke everywhere.  After breakfast we went back to the room so that hubby had enough time to unload the food hehe. Then at 09:45 we left the hotel off to Selah hall . There's hiccup when we were about to pass the gate because our plat number was unidentifiable by the system, thus we were 12 minute late when we arrived the venue.  Thankfully the PIC of the event was quick ...

At 8:30 in the morning, my husband and I dropped our eldest off at campus. No rush, no drama. Just the quiet efficiency of parents doing what needs to be done. From there, without much ceremony, we continued driving to Bandung .  Breakfast was simple: boiled eggs and fruit pudding from Mbak Eva yesterday. Around 10, we stopped at the first rest area. I suddenly craved tahu bulat . No particular reason. Just one of those very specific cravings that arrives unannounced and insists on being fulfilled. Unfortunately, none were there. We moved on.  Thirty minutes later, the second rest area delivered. Tahu bulat at last. A small, silly joy. We added Kopi Kenangan to keep ourselves awake, though in the excitement I forgot one very basic thing. I needed to pee. So yes, we stopped again at the third rest area at 11.  Right in front of the restroom stood a singer with a surprisingly beautiful voice. I paused for a moment and gave a small donation. Some things deserve appreciatio...

This afternoon my husband took me along to Jalarasa . He had a lunch meeting, and I happily chose a separate table so I could read my book in peace. It reminded me of yesterday at Naked Papa. I still laugh a little thinking about how shocked I was to see it full at ten in the morning, packed with moms fresh from school drop-offs. Today brought the same kind of surprise. Right at lunch hour, Jalarasa was completely full. Every corner of that big hidden restaurant in The Breeze was alive with chatter, cutlery, footsteps, and the hum of people enjoying their day. It’s tucked away in a quiet corner where you wouldn’t even know it existed if you weren’t looking for it. And yet there it was, bursting with guests. It made me think. People often say the economy is slowing down, that things aren’t looking too great. But somehow restaurants keep filling up. Not cheap restaurants either. Places like these, hidden and spacious, still overflowing with people who want to gather, laugh, taste, and l...

This morning I tagged along with my husband to get the car washed, mostly because I had nothing better to do and partly because I enjoy these tiny slices of life with him. Right next door was Naked Papa, so of course I wandered over for breakfast. I swear I nearly laughed out loud when I opened the door. Ten in the morning and the place was already full with pretty young moms who probably had just dropped off their kids at school. I looked around, amused, before the realization landed softly on my shoulder. I was one of them too! LOL. I had banh mi and an ocha fusion to share with my husband. Simple, nothing dramatic, yet somehow it warmed the morning like sunshine through a kitchen window. After lunch we headed to the new apartment to sign PPJB . One of those milestones that feels both official and surreal. Everything went so smoothly. The notary was kind, the admin staff easy to talk to, and before we knew it the paperwork was done. Less than an hour and a small piece of our future...

Today felt heavy in that gentle way only a gloomy day can.  By the time my husband and I sat down for lunch with the Titipku team at Wee Nam Kee, the rain was pouring hard. It had been so long since our last proper lunch together with the team. This time there were eight of us at the table. Henri, the CEO, led the group with his usual warmth, surrounded by some IT folks, bizdev, sales, and marketing. We talked about ideas. Big ones, small ones, the kind that make you pause and imagine a slightly better version of the world. Titipku has always been that kind of project. In case you don’t know, it’s an app that lets you shop at traditional market without having to leave home. Just a few taps and you’re done. It has saved me more times than I can count, especially on days when life feels too rushed to even think about parking or traffic. Somewhere in the middle of our conversation, Henri mentioned that he’s known us for nine years. Nine. I blinked at that. I didn’t realize it had bee...

December began softly this year, with a simple Sunday-date-on-a-Monday with my husband in PIK 2 . The real reason we were out, of course, was to drop off our eldest at her campus event, Sports and Arts Day at Galaxy Sports Center . She needed to be there from eight in the morning until three. It felt like such a long stretch of time, the kind that invites you to turn errands into moments. Since only a few places open early, we ended up at Starbucks The Land’s End . The sunlight spilled through the windows in that gentle morning way that makes everything feel possible. My husband immediately dove into his marathon of meetings, as usual, while I tried to make the most of the brightness for reading. We avoided sitting near the beach because the heat was already creeping in. Instead, we settled indoors on the second floor, right next to the toilet, which sounds funny now but felt practical at the time. By noon, we left the cool room behind and took a slow walk through The Land’s End area. ...

IThis morning felt like a gentle reset. After days of noise, rush, and honestly… zero motivation to cook, I finally stepped back into the kitchen. Nothing fancy. I just reheated leftovers and made a simple omelet. Actually, most of my energy this morning has been poured into shooting product videos on my phone, supposedly for Shopee affiliate posts that never made it to the internet. The irony makes me laugh. So many takes, so many ideas, but somehow none of them felt ready to share. By noon, we were sitting in the last batch of Sunday service , and that quiet space reminded me again of what truly matters. I wrote down notes, not just to remember them, but because each line felt like it was speaking directly into a part of me that needed grounding. Value. The foundation of every value we hold should be born out of our personal relationship with Christ . It made me pause. Do I consider important the things my church community considers important? Do the values I cherish align with the ...

I didn’t expect this Saturday to turn into a full-day adventure with my family. It began innocently enough with lunch at Subway , simply because we had a voucher for four that would expire the next day. Nothing dramatic, nothing planned. Just one of those small domestic moments where you say, let’s just use it. And off we went. After eating, we watch   Agak Laen 2: Menyala Pantiku!  A nd oh my goodness, my stomach still hurts from laughing. I honestly think it’s funnier than the first one, which already drew nine million people to the cinemas. This sequel feels wilder, sharper, and even more chaotic in the best way. Even my eldest who rarely agrees to go to the cinema, laughing the loudest in the entire theater.  After the movie, we were ready to head home. But life had other ideas. As we passed a bus stop, a little electric shuttle rolled by. My eldest suddenly shouted, “ I’ve been wanting to ride that bus for so long! ” Without thinking, I said, “Let’s go then!” And ju...

I spent the late afternoon soaking in a quiet corner at The Breeze, enjoying a little slice of me-time. It felt rare and luxurious, sitting there with Okki Sutanto’s   Yang Tak Terkatakan Tentang Menuju Dewasa   in my hands. The breeze carried a soft hum of the evening crowd, but somehow my world stayed still with every page I turned. A moment to breathe, to exist, to be gently reminded of the things we learn on our way to becoming an adult, again and again. I headed home when Maghrib approached, just as my husband wrapped up his four-hour office webinar. We exchanged that familiar tired-but-happy smile, the kind that says “long day, ya?” without needing words. I lay down for a quick thirty-minute rest, letting my body soften into the bed before the next thing on the schedule called me back. And then we went downstairs for our biweekly DATE komsel gathering in the apartment’s function room. I thought it would be the usual small circle, but as soon as the door opened, I froze f...

I didn’t expect this Thursday to feel like a soft circle closing, but that’s exactly what happened when I followed my husband to Jakarta and got dropped off at JW Marriott Kuningan . I wasn’t there for lunch or a meeting of my own. I was there to see two people who have quietly shaped so much of the way I understand myself and others: my MBTI mentor, Mr. Robbins , and his colleague, Cally , from The Myers-Briggs Company Singapore . It was my first time meeting Cally in person. Until today, she only existed as an email signature and a WhatsApp profile picture, the friendly voice who processed all my MBTI indicator orders . But with Mr. Robbins, it felt like an old movie warming up again. He trained me back in Bali in August 2018. Seven years ago. A different version of me. A different chapter of my life. He greeted me with exactly the kind of scolding you’d expect from someone who knows you well enough to be annoyed. Where have you been. Why don’t you ever contact me. And why, in the...

This Thursday was one of those days that felt like three days folded into one. Full, warm, surprising, exhausting, and in the most unexpected way, deeply meaningful. The morning started with something mundane yet necessary. My husband and I squeezed in a quick visit to CIMB Niaga , the kind of errand you hope goes smoothly. And it did. Everything was taken care of without any drama. Let’s just say that after today, I probably won’t need to queue anymore if I ever go back there. A small victory, but a satisfying one. Time was tight, so we drove straight to Agora Mall for lunch at Su Wah . We didn’t expect much, but the food turned out to be genuinely good. A comforting meal for two at a reasonable price, the kind of lunch that makes you pause and think, Oh, this is nice. Simple joys. Right as we were about to enter the restaurant, we ran into Mba Lurus Ledyati , Director of Arkbase , who had invited us to the Business Network International event that day. After we finished our lunch, ...

Today I spent the whole day at Bintaro Xchange , and somehow it turned into one of those quiet, unexpected days that end up teaching you something about yourself… and about love. It started with lunch at The People’s Cafe . Just me and my husband, sitting side by side with warm food and even warmer conversations. We found ourselves talking about a question that sounds dramatic but wasn’t meant to be: what would my life look like without you, and what would your life look like without me? It wasn’t a " bucin " moment. It was simply the topic of our #pacaranmingguini, slipped casually between sips of iced tea before he headed off to his mini work meeting. And somehow, without either of us feeling awkward or jealous, the conversation flowed into imagining the alternate versions of our lives. What if he had married his ex. What if I had married mine. What kind of people would we have become. There was no tension. Just curiosity. Just honesty. From that, we drifted into a quieter,...