Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Manuela Ribeiro spent her early 20’s in Mozambique. “I feel African in my heart and soul”, she admits. Nonetheless, after a few years she started looking beyond Africa for new adventures, and in 1982 she moved to Macau.
“I’ve been here for 39 years, that’s half my life!” she exclaims. “But I didn’t choose Macau, Macau chose me. A friend saw a notice in the newspaper adverting for an office manager for a resort near the beach. Having been brought up near the sea, this greatly appealed to me so I applied, got the job, and arrived here to take up the role at the Pousada de Coloane.”
The Macau culture and mindset suited her well and she soon settled in. “As I spoke good English I started doing translations” and in 1984 the opportunity came for her to join the translation team at the newly established local TV station Teledifusão de Macau, S. A. (TDM, Macau Broadcasting).
“My job was to translate the programmes from English and French to Portuguese. TDM started in May 1984 and I began working with them the following month and continue to this day.”
For about the first ten years, Manuela lived on Macau-side down the myriad of narrow streets around St. Lawrence’s church, a short walk from the center of town. Moving across to Taipa in the early 90’s, she then spent four years in Chong Fok Garden behind the New Century Hotel. The lure of sea and sand was strong; Manuela eventually moved to the then ‘faaar-away’ residential development Hellene Garden on the south east coast of Coloane where she’s spent the past 25 years.
“I was 10 years in my first apartment here and 15 in my current apartment.”
With family in Portugal, a daughter, grandson and sister, what has kept Manuela in Macau for so many years? “Portugal doesn’t mean much to me,” she says. “And here in Macau, so far, so good. It’s a very tranquil life.”
Tranquility is certainly the word that comes to mind when visiting Manuela’s home, a 3-bedroom duplex on the waterfront overlooking Hac Sa bay. The living-dining room is a cool and relaxing sanctuary, with pale green tiled floor, white-washed walls and huge ferns that almost brush the ceiling, planted in Chinese ceramic pots on wooden stands.
“In my youth I was very active and it was only very few evenings that I would stay in. These days it’s few evenings I’m out, I prefer the comfortable surroundings of home.”
On the terrace off the living room, windchimes tinkle in the breeze. “I buy them on my travels, wherever I go.” Filled with flowering pot plants, greenery and shrubs, the terrace is a focal point; bird seed and a bird bath are set out to welcome feathered friends that visit regularly throughout the day. Planes pass overhead in the distance, arriving and leaving from Macau’s airport, and further on the horizon, on a clear day one can see the planes coming in and out of Hong Kong’s airport.
The apartment is laid out over two floors: downstairs is the living-dining area, a big kitchen and laundry (and home to 23-year old parrot called Chico, whose repertoire includes “give me five!”), a covered laundry-terrace with huge hanging baskets of ferns, visible also from the end of the dining room, and spacious master bedroom and bathroom. Upstairs is a guest bedroom, bathroom and home office.The relatively new Covid-led practice of working from home is not anything new to Manuela: “Translations can be done remotely so I have always had a home office.” She appreciates the lifestyle of being able to work in the comfort of her own home.
Another focal point of the home is to the right as one enters the living area. Two magnificent Mongolian chairs with horseshoe-shaped arms strike an impressive pose.
“I’ve had them with me for 35 years,” Manuela smiles. “They’re foldable. They were used by the warlords, carried on horseback when they traveled. On rest-stops the servants would unload and unfold them for their masters to sit on.”
When did she start collecting all the beautiful pieces of furniture and other treasures I ask?
“Not really collecting, it’s more like I needed to furnish my home and if I see something I like, I buy it … even if I have to carry it from afar. I bought one piece here, one piece there. This was back in the days when there were so many nice furniture and antique shops on the roads leading up to St Paul’s”, now overtaken by tourist tat, beef jerky and biscuit stores.
The sofa and arm chairs, a classic elegant design and fabric, were made here in Macau. Her very first piece of Chinese furniture was the TV console, also from Macau, as were the coffee tables. Several large and handsome Chinese cabinets followed – useful for storing treasured collections of glassware and crockery. Inspired by a picture in a magazine, Manuela designed the bamboo dining table and chairs and had them made in Hong Kong.
On the walls in the living room hang two big carved wood mandalas, their geometric design said to bring positive life energy and harmony to a space. On another wall, above the sofa, hangs a much-loved painting bought in Brazil: “It’s by a Brazilian artist, I don’t know who, but I fell in love with it, its vibrancy and colours. It depicts Candomblé, a folk religion practiced especially in Brazil.”
One of the piece de resistance treasures in Manuela’s home is her beautifully and intricately carved bed head, which was also inspired by a picture she saw in a Portuguese magazine.
“It’s fashioned after the bilros, the Portuguese word for ‘spindle’, like the spindles that were used by lacemakers of days gone by, and it was a favourite hobby of my grandma. I sent photos of it to a factory in China – it’s all handmade in teak wood. It took two months to make. I’ve stayed a loyal customer of the factory over the years and become friendly with the owners – they even gave me this gift of a mudman pottery fisherman.”
Other treasures around the home have been collected from travels further afield; Jordan, Fiji, Brazil, Bali, Vietnam, a host of African countries, all over Europe. In particular the beach destinations, Phuket, Krabi, Philippines, Bali.
“I love the beach … I’m from Lisbon so I could not live without the sea.”
