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The Pearl, the Lady and the Wardrobe

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Located on the waterfront on the north east coast of Taipa island in Macau, Pearl on the Lough is a 22-storey, two-tower residential development where at one time during the late 2000’s, many of the apartments languished empty – rents were relatively high, the nearest bus stop was half an hour walk away, and the area felt remote, less accessible than central Taipa.
“When I first arrived in Macau in 2009, I joined my husband Mike who had come ahead and was already living in one of Pearl’s 4-bedroom duplexes,” explains Sue Lardner.  “Coming from a 500-square foot one-bed flat in London, suddenly having 2,800 square foot of space was amazing.  But in the early days it was quite lonely.  Back then Pearl on the Lough wasn’t such a popular place to live because public transport was a challenge.”
Fast forward almost 14 years and things are very different.  For one thing, the public bus route now stops near the front entrance of Pearl on the Lough which was a game-changer for Sue: “I get around entirely by bus.  I know all the bus numbers, all the routes!   Macau’s bus system is excellent and it’s improved greatly with the mobile app.”
And the complex is back in favour with its dog-friendly park area and waterfront location.  Set in pretty gardens with a small clubhouse and pool, both the towers were designed so that each of the four apartments per floor are able to benefit from the stunning sea views over towards Macau’s skyline.  With more supply of newer builds on the market and the economic uncertainties thanks to Covid, rents have softened to become more competitive.
“There’s a good community mix of expatriate and local families living here these days.”
So what brought Sue and Mike to Macau in the first place?  “We met through theatre – I have a background in fashion design which I studied at college. I worked in theater wardrobe and costumes in London’s West End – the big shows like Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, My Fair Lady, Oliver, Mary Poppins.  And Mike works for the creative engineering group Tait that creates live entertainment experiences.”
As their General Manager in Macau, Mike was here working on attractions like Cirque du Soleil, Galaxy’s Crystal and Diamond lobbies and performer flying acts for The House of Dancing Water, all of which needed high-performance machinery and automation solutions and mechanical and electrical engineering service and support.
Sue joined The House of Dancing Water as head of department for wardrobe, before the show opened in 2010.  After six years, she moved to Studio City for a couple of years in the costume department for Franz Harary’s House of Magic.  When the attraction closed, she decided to follow her other passion, yoga.  With a 3-month teacher training course in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand under her belt, she returned to Macau and taught yoga, “mostly vinyasa and restorative”, in various studios.  She also spent nine months at Pui Ching school “assisting the English teachers, singing songs, reading stories to the children.  That was from September 2021 to June this year, and then it was lockdown because of Covid.”
“Sadly there’s no wardrobe or costume work for me at the moment in Macau and there’s only so many days that I can sit by the pool,” Sue smiles.  So she’s been spending more time in England where she’s originally from, staying at her mother’s place and with friends.
“I’m fine to live out of a suitcase for now, I’m flexible, I go where work takes me.  The plan is that I’ll be back in Macau in March, and then I’ll start hustling for yoga work.”
“For the whole of our 14 years here we’ve only lived at Pearl, specifically in Tower 2.   We used to live in a duplex on the 12th floor and now we are in this 3-bedroom apartment on the 5th floor.  We’re even happier in the smaller space and consider it very much our home.”
The apartment’s décor is an eclectic mix of treasures, the centerpiece being a framed textured print, Dead Man’s Hand by American contemporary artist Todd White.  Both Mike and Sue are keen readers, so floor-to-ceiling shelves in the living room are brimming with books.
Much of the furniture and the rugs come from IKEA.  The two arm chairs by the living room window originally came from Tao Bao, gifted to the couple by friends leaving Macau. The pale wood Chinese-style TV consul was another gift.  The coffee table and one round-backed armchair came from home décor shop City Square in Taipa, sadly closed for some years now.
Sue’s energy and enthusiasm are infectious and make her visitors feel immediately at ease.  Much-loved dog, 12-year old Mouse, a rescue from Anima, was found on Coloane beach and now lounges on one of the sofas, adding to the sense of laidback relaxation in this home.  A sense of warm coziness emanates from the textured olive-brown-gold main feature wall in the living room.
“The paint came from special paint effects shop Decora based in Pac On.  I did it myself; I wanted gold, but I’m happy with how it turned out.”
The rich olive-brown curtains drawn across the internal balcony and at the start of the hallway to the bedrooms, again a clever find in IKEA, perfectly complement the wall and help keep the place warm in the cooler months.
The apartment is orientated to make best use of the spectacular sea views; from the master bedrooms bow window one can see all three bridges over to Macau and the sea lapping up to the rocky shoreline directly below.  The guest bedroom, set out as Sue’s yoga room, also enjoys these views and is a calm oasis of white, greys, soft transparent curtains and meditating Buddhas.
Pot plants and a healthy crop of chilies and herbs grow on the balcony, “entirely thanks to Mike’s green fingers, as I even managed to kill the basil,” Sue admits.  “Fortunately, I can’t do much damage to our Christmas tree,” she laughs, “as it’s from a box that I’ve just put it up and decorated it so that Mike has it to enjoy when I’m away over the holidays.”
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