Bondi Local | Fernanda Lena
Bondi Local | Fernanda Lena
This week Melanie caught up with her old friend Fernanda at Shuk café in North Bondi to chat about her life in Bondi … and other things.
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Fernanda, thank you so much for agreeing to do the Bondi Fresh Daily interview … in-depth interview!
Wow. Always a pleasure to meet up with you Melanie.
Can we first of all please get a little bit of your background?
Well I come from Brazil, more precisely from the south of Brazil, as Brazil is such a huge country. Every region is very different. I came to Australia, to Bondi, on a very beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon January 28th, 25 years ago.
With Bart?
With Bart? Yes with Bart! Bart is the reason why I’m here. Other reasons now but initially because of him.
How did you meet Bart?
Bart and I we met in London in ’87 when we were both backpacking around Europe. And we met during our very last month. I had left Brazil to go to Israel Kibbutz experience and I said to my mum and dad “I’ll be back in six months” and I returned five years later!
I did the same!
Yes and I’m sure both of us wouldn’t like Gabi and Lola to do the same thing to us! When you put yourself in your parent’s shoes …
It’s only at this stage that we realise what it must have been like …
It’s unbelievable.
I like writing and I’m generally good at keeping in contact with friends and family, I’ve always been like that. I used to write numerous letters and that’s indeed why Bart wanted to meet me.
The story was, in London, it’s a long story so I’ll make it short. He ended up renting my room in this house. I used to live with a sister of the guy who was managing U2 at the time. And Bart went to do the U2 [as a rigger] tour in Europe and he needed a place to stay. So Michael, the manager said “look, my sister rents a room to this Brazilian girl but she’s travelling for 3 months so the room is there.” So Bart rented the room and according to him, on the top of the fridge there was this big pile of letters and he wondered what that was all about and the sister said “they are Fernanda’s, wait til you meet her. She knows a lot of people!” So he became curious about me. Eventually he arrived and we became good friends. We decided that we didn’t want to spend another cold awful Christmas and New Year in London so we decided to got to Morocco before each of us going our own way back to Brazil and Australia. There’s really nice surf and sun there. So we went and when we arrived in Casablanca it was Christmas Eve, we had nothing booked, as you did back then, and when we arrived at the hotel the guy said “there is a problem, we only have one room available and it’s a double bed.” We said “Oh, that’s alright, that’ll be fine!”
This is a movie!
It all started there. I guess Casablanca was the place.
Then Bart went back to Australia and I went back to Brazil. Bart came to see me five months later and stayed quite a long time there then. We kept the relationship going for about 4 years apart, coming and going. He went many times, I came a couple of times. And the second time I came I was pretty much sure that it would be very hard for Bart, back then, to work in Brazil. So I thought well, you know, I think I have to consider moving to Australia. And I loved it when I came. You’ll see when you come to Brazil there are a lot of similarities. No wonder Bondi’s being invaded by Brazilians!
There’s quite a strong Brazilian community here. Was it like that back then?
It was, especially in Bondi. But it was very small. So that’s why we all know each other. The old school. The old Brazilians now we all know each other. We used to do the Sunday capoeira in front of the Pavilion. So whatever you were doing, or if you needed to talk to someone, you would pretty much just go there. This was pre mobile phones. It was a way of catching up with your Brazilian friends.
Is that why you moved to Bondi?
Bondi for me, and for Bart, meant diversity back then. Initially we were flat sitting an apartment in Glebe. And I never forget the first he time brought me to Bondi. Of course we loved the sea. I just came and I said to Bart, this is where we’re going to live. This is beautiful. Let’s just move here. And we did, we moved to Ben Buckler. We had this falling to bits house that we rented but the back yard was Ben Buckler! So it was just fantastic. It was summer, it was the party house for everyone. Yeah, it was great.
So Bondi was always very special, very diverse. It’s a beautiful place.
So you’ve been here since 1991.
Yes, this July will be our 25th anniversary living here.
Your two kids were born here. Do you think they will have the locked-on Bondi thing?
Definitely.
I guess a lot of suburbs in Sydney, I mean you talk to people in Balmain or Marrickville, they will say they have a lovely community, and they do. And I think it comes from who is governing that suburb and what is being offered, and the opportunities for people to gather.
I also think the physicality of the suburb makes a difference. We’ve got the Promenade which we call Piazza de la Bondi where you’ll always bump into someone you know, and it draws people down there.
Yes, it is a meeting place.
I think for Gabi and Luke it’s a great place, and, you know, you go to school locally, I know you’ve had the same experience with your children, and it’s the same for us. I mean Luke right now is probably skating at the skate park. And then they hang around with their friends. It’s a wonderful way to grow up. There is always something to do at the beach.
I would like the Pavilion to be kept there and I’m so glad the residents are really getting together and doing something about it. But a lot more can be done. We’ve already lost a lot of the cultural events that we used to have at the Pavilion. We used to have at least four festivals a year. Now we only have a few. Who is missing out? All these families with young children.
I’m very passionate about the Pavilion because my children’s childhood was spent there.
We went to the council meeting the other night. There is a lot of passion.
What do you think is your Bondi beat? Where do we see the Fernanda groove?
Initially we lived in South Bondi, in Francis Street. It’s a beautiful street. And that’s where Gabi was born and it was my neighbourhood for four or five years. When Gabi was five we moved to North Bondi which was very different. It was like the poor side of Bondi! But it was very quiet compared to the South. Everything I needed to do I had to walk to Hall Street. Nothing really happened this side. It’s very different now. It’s a really lovely area. We have the place we are in now because I fell in love with the street. We have the little park at the end of the street that served the purpose for our family and I still smile whenever I pass by now at the end of the day. It might have 20 families there, a lot of kids …
It’s a genius little park [where Frederick, O’Donnell and Vicars Streets meet], isn’t it? All roads lead to the local park.
And a few years ago we were part of the redevelopment of the park and it’s going to have another one now. All the plans are there and I guess there are going to be a lot of young passionate families that are going to be involved. Last Saturday they had the movie night - I think they have movie night every year in the park. It’s very cute!
I walk a lot around North Bondi with Bella [the dog] but I must say, you know North Bondi used to be all sand dunes so it’s very dry and the vegetation is not quite like the south end. I do think the southern end of Bondi is absolutely beautiful with all those beautiful trees and all the vegetation. North Bondi can be a bit bare but I love it. It’s becoming more and more charming. Especially around the Republic Bakery, La Piadina of course where I go and get my coffee and speak my Italian with the boys. They’re gorgeous. So it has a vibe now.
It’s interesting how a precinct within a suburb just bubbles up over time.
What are your favourite places to eat and or drink? We’re at Shuk now and I know that’s a favourite, but where else?
Do you know what Shuk means? It means market, any kind of market and it’s the same word in Hebrew and Arabic. There was a place I used to love to go to in Israel when I was there, just because I loved the sound of its name. It was the Shuk Hapispeshim. “I’m going to the Shuk Hapishpeshim!”
It’s been so lovely to have this place [Shuk] as we really didn’t have anything that close to us. And the coffee’s good, the food is great. And they have the amazing Israeli breakfast. All sorts of things. They’re very friendly. And as you can see, they’re very family friendly. So I love Shuk. I love La Piadina. I love the Republic, our organic bakery. Everything there is beautiful. Now, on your side, South Bondi, always Bondi Tratt. I love having my coffee there and it’s always wonderful. I spent a lot of time there with Gabi for babycinos in the morning. Back then we used to have a creperie where St.George [Bank] used to be.
I know your coffee shop is Birichina and it’s absolutely beautiful, and if you would like to see the most good looking firemen in Sydney, that’s where you go! So I keep telling my single friends if you fancy a fireman go get your coffee at Birichina!
Just back to you and the fact that you have lived here since 1991, do you reckon the explosion of restaurants and cafes is the biggest change over that time?
No. These days people across Sydney don’t really need to come to Bondi for diversity, and diversity in food etc. Mind you at the new Hakoah development makes you feel like you need to have had plastic surgery and all your brands on to fit in. But that’s fine. That happens. I think a lot has changed in Bondi as well. I think it’s to do with a lot of wealth. It’s an amazing location and a lot of people – I mean if you think about the big cities in the world, where on Earth are you going to be this close to the sea and this close to the city; so that element pulls a lot of people as well. I think that’s what people here complain about these days, that everyone is so trendy, but I guess people like us who have been here for a long time, we have formed our community so it doesn’t really matter.
We just hope, I guess, that it doesn’t reach a tipping point where it’s all that and the social housing is gone. Now we have very wealthy people living here but we also have people living in public housing. And people who have lived here for 60 to 70 years, they’re still around.
Yes I know. I see some of them on Bondi Fresh! It’s great to value everyone.
Just a little bit about your reading/watching habits. Are you reading anything at the moment?
I read a lot. That’s why I don’t have time to watch television. If someone says to me that there is something I really must watch then I will, but I really don’t have time for both. I do a lot of reading for professional development as well [Fernanda is a child development officer with family day care at Waverley Council]. And finally, I joined a book club a couple of years ago, so that’s fun.
At the moment for the book club I’m reading a brilliant book called The Man Who Loved Dogs. It’s a Cuban writer and it’s a big book, 600 pages. Basically there are three characters in the book, Trotsky, the guy who killed Trotsky and a Cuban writer. Their stories are interwoven, and he is … I have never heard of this writer before but he is really as talented as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I wanted to read it in the original Spanish but I couldn’t get it, so I’m reading it in English. His name is Leonardo Padura. Apparently in Cuba he’s a well-known crime writer but this is his first part historical fiction book. You know I have this fascination for all things Frida Kahlo, so when I got to the part when he finally met Frida it was so exciting!
Final question, do you have a motto for life?
I thought about that this morning coz I know you ask that, and I do and I have had it for a long time. It’s a Dalai Lama saying, and it’s: “We are here for each other.” And I think that’s me, that’s how I live life.
That’s a beautiful way to end. Thank you so much.
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Full interview on SoundCloud below or HERE
