The Chateau Diaries #6 All I want for Christmas is MORE

[Fuzzypeg]

I’m mystified by the Christmas Day plans / guests, are there no COVID restrictions in France ? Or is the new year at la lande destined to bring a major COVID outbreak? If 16 guests are expected , the dining table will have to be huge to accommodate them all with the 2metre rule ?
one other gripe, I am really, really bored , reading about narcissistic personality disorder. It’s like Groundhog Day .

 

[frenchessence]

Did anyone else find the sharp contrast between Isabelle and Percy’s activities in South Africa and the happenings at Lalande as gut-wrenching as I did? (Advent #24)

Absolutely. AND they’re almost twice the age of LOTL. I like that apparently they’ve been doing this for years (ie pre SJ vlogging) and literally putting those items together themselves. Not only that, but they went & handed those buckets out in person.

The cynical amongst us won’t have failed to notice SJ (who probably edited their video) included a quick frame of Isabelle handing over cash for ‘a vaccine’ to one woman - but I have a feeling she’d be doing this anyway, even if not on film. Having said that, it would have been better if she had given the money but not shown it on the blog imo. As they say, “Do good by stealth, and blush to have it famed” That aside, in the time of Covid, that these two oldies went and did this themselves - heart lifting. Especially in stark contrast of the vulgar take, take, take and out of control consumerism at Chateau de La Lande

 

[Seeingitasitis]

I am a Chateau devotee and a Stephanie one. But last night was a shambles. I am afraid that Stephanie appeared to me to be quite "refreshed" by the time the broadcast started. She would not be quiet, talking and laughing loudly over everyone. Stepping in front of, and standing next to Cat as she was addressing the camera and talking over her. It was irritating and much to Cat's credit that she gave way several times and showed no signs of annoyance. I was practically shouting: "Let someone else speak." I stuck with it until fifteen minutes before the end, and then just gave it up. Jut because other people are also shining stars, does not make your star shine less brightly.

 

[Linus]

Did anyone else find the sharp contrast between Isabelle and Percy’s activities in South Africa and the happenings at Lalande as gut-wrenching as I did? (Advent #24)

 

[ChocLili]

I have a confession to make to you, my fellow Tattlers. I haven’t watched an advent video beyond #5. I just can’t do it. I haven’t watched the last couple of gift-grab ones. I’ve only watched one of Dan’s videos. I’m not a patron, not even a once- off fiver to binge Patreon content - can’t do it. I’ve never donated money in a YT superchat (ensuring YT’s 40% cut). I skip through all the ads when I do watch anything. I still don’t ’get’ Michael Trotter’s affair with a kitchen appliance in pieces.

I eagerly read your comments here; witty, insightful, crazy, disturbing, uplifting, offbeat, interesting, but my firsthand knowledge of the Chateau Diaries content is now distant.

Stephanie Jarvis and her cast of marooned loonies have “jumped the shark” and the CNN article will only make things worse. Content is king, but right now I feel about as connected to the content as a hedgehog under two feet of pink gravel.

 

[ChocLili]

Also it anly means that MP has time to flock around and not work on his aga before xmas hmhmhmmmm

It’s OK. AGA is almost done . . .

 

[BuggaBuggaBugga]

So I’ve been mulling over the shambolic Pethericks. Not only do they not deliver regular, interesting or even relevant content (half-done tree was all they managed for getting the chateau ready for Christmas) they then start another channel with the most obnoxious chateau owner of them all... Dear God. Anyway, in the spirit of the Pethericks meet the Trotters meet Beatrix Potter and any number of apt quotes (“This time next year we’ll be millionaires”) we need to come up with a thread title... I think we’ll have fun with this one! To start the ball rolling:

The Potters #1 Can’t be arsed to do anything

I am not entirely sure what to make of the Pethericks. MP has suffered from depression in the past; he has said so. Not an uncommon problem in someone with MP's talent and creativity and MP has bucketloads of both. Perhaps MP is scared of his YT success, maybe there is some self-sabotage going on too. But when the mask drops a little, MP can be bitchy. He is also a bit cutting with Ryan.

Papa Petherick is amazing. He has put in a lot of work on those cottage renovations, impressive even for a man half his age. I don't know enough about Sherrie or the sisters to have an opinion.

Billy does not come across as particularly nice person. He does and says crude things on Ryan's vlogs, see the leaf blower episode. He is also mocking and sarcastic to Ryan. Billy also made some comment about "don't get married" on a recent Chateau Life vlog. (Not sure whether that was in jest or not, but Phil stammered a bit; Phil clearly loves Angelina.) Billy then admitted that he and Gwendoline are not yet married. Billy's comment came across as particularly shitty especially as the entire Petherick clan seem to be living on the estate courtesy of Gwendoline and her inheritance. Not smart to bite the hand that feeds and puts a chateau roof over your head besides. Does Billy really love Gwendoline or is he using her? I suspect her family wonders the same thing. Smart of her to stay out of the vlog world as much as she can.

 

[Raspberrybrulee]

It's all kicking off big time isn't it? Brenda vs C-bomb with Sherrie Petherick stirring the pot and La Lande switching allegiances on a daily basis. You could not make this shit up

 

[Pno]

I agree, - sites like Patreon were created precisely for this purpose - donations in return for content - blame the process not the person.

I really enjoyed day 13, everyone looked happy and the singing was delightful.

I personally think the ‘let’s build a Snowman, I mean a crèche’ was to cue the Gift Grab sheep to start sending the rest of the zoo, kings and town folk. She even made sure to include the measurements since the nativity figurines come in different sizes... girlfriend is no dumb dumb when it comes to getting what she wants.

 

[Rory]

Dear SJ - we know one of the christmas commune reads this thread. Thankyou for leaving that peacock room for thecAdvent calendars. A suggestion - do you think the advent vlogs might start covering the preperations of the chateau for Christmas at some stage? Here are some suggestions:
- put up decorations in kitchen eg your annual advent calendar over the stove
- practice what external coloured lighting will look like as guests arrive
- ready and warm the guest rooms, include treats from your endless gifts
- clean fireplaces ready for guests
- demonstrate how to make egg nog, mulled wine and irish coffee
- plan a pretend christmas meal paired with wines for several meals over the week, perhaps referencing recipes from throughout the year eg goat man recipes
- make a trifle, gingerbread house, shortbread,
- write the shopping list of food, drink and presents
- dress a pretend christmas meal table - go on - without spode or PP, go on I very dare you
- plan a Christmas music play list for present opening, eating meals to washing up sharing artists from around the world in multiple languages
- write your Christmas La Lande cards
- get everything spit spot from ensuring BBQ and pizza oven ready for Boxing Day tradition, utensils found, silver/gold cutlery polished, rooms dusted and cleaned,
Please just do something to, and for, the Chateau for Christmas.
Thankyou, Rory

 

[Espe]

More spend, spend, spend: a ridiculously huge tree, much too large, so it had to be chopped at both ends but the LOTL has to have the best, biggest and most expensive of everything. Stephanie was then telling the men what to do and just had to have her own way about everything. She and PP then had to go and buy over 3,000 new lights because they couldn't find last year's, then more presents to buy for the secret Santa although they packed up loads of stuff yesterday. I do wonder if any of the Patreon money has been spent on these trifles. It's also a shame not to be able to see the actual tree because it is so overloaded with baubles, etc. Why bother to buy an expensive natural tree if you can't see any of the branches? They might as well have another plastic one if they don't want to see the actual tree. Each day she becomes increasingly more annoying. As soon as the lockdown is over, she'll be off on her travels again and people will say she deserves it and it's her own money she's spending but surely she should use some of her own money to improve what is, after all, her own home, rather than letting other people pay for all the necessary work while she spends her private cash on travelling and superficial adornments! When is she going to grow up and take some responsibllity?

Interesting that Ruth has not yet put in an appearance.

 

[chillijam]

And don't get me started on Marie's 'florals'. Yet another bunch of exactly the same collection of twigs making a pseudo arrangement, and squeals of OMG it's SOOOO gorgeous. It's just a deconstructed mess. Are we all in denial??

 

[Princess and the Pea]

On Christmas Day, we had a friend over who lives alone, never had kids and whose parents have both passed away. What should someone like her do if they don't have family or a "loving family" to spend the holidays with? Not celebrate? Drink all day? Everyone should have the chance to enjoy the holidays.

So what if the spending is a little OTT in Stephanie's case. She makes a lot of people feel welcome. Many people only volunteer to help the poor at Christmas so they can feel good about themselves but the rest of the year, they don't give a toss.

I have been alone on quite a few Christmas Days. I plan it, so it is a lovely day, bubble bath, face pack, fizz. Lots of reading material, watch what I like on TV - Some Like it Hot was on this year. Prepare & cook a nice dinner. Go for a walk whilst it is in the oven. Eat it at a nicely laid table & enjoy it. Chocs & satsumas for the evening in front of the TV. SJ makes people welcome because a) they are ex boyfriend who owns a stake in the house b) they work for her c) they seem like they have nowhere else to go d) they are a fan boy. e) they are 'content' for her vlogs. f) She is an empty vessel who cannot be alone.
As for suggesting that people who volunteer to help at Christmas who only do it to feel good about themselves, please don't judge everyone by SJ's standards. I assume you mean me, as I have said I do this. I actually raise money all year to be able to give presents & pay for the Xmas lunches. I am also part of a Sunday lunch club rota for the homeless/poor/lonely. It does make me feel good, it warms my heart that I am doing something to help others less fortunate than myself.

 

[Espe]

What a waste of higher education to end up where your greatest goal in life is to get and spend. However much she may try to deny that (and I am sure she would), the evidence is there; her greatest joy comes from acquisition; materialism; appearances, and being the belle of the ball. There is superficiality and fakery in order to get more from people who are daft enough to encourage the indulgence because they mistakenly believe they are taking part in the fairy story. If this were a children's fable, there'd be a moral at the end where the protagonist gets her come uppance. I wonder if this will ever happen.

 

[Espe]

Ms Cat actually stopped off at the Petherick pad on her way back to England and Ryan just happened to be visiting there. After watching the Christmas Eve vlog I was slightly sick reading the comments of the live chat that accompanies the vlog. Some crazy mad fans there who are basically stalking PP. Loki and Ellen are hot to trot females lusting after the toy boy and making suggestive comments. Loki professes to be Mormon but talks about drinking her whiskey...she and Ellen take turns saying all the sexy crazy things they would like to do with PP toy boy. If these crazy people turn up at the chateau next year Ms Steph is going to have some major security issues. I will have to avoid the live chats from now on and unless things change in the new year I will be unsubscribing. The sh*t show that LaLande is becoming is so unreal...unhealthy and so far from how "normal" people behave.


Absolutely... watching these 2 old folks filling the buckets...dragging them out to give to people in need was so heart warming and it seems they have done this before... meanwhile the me , me, me daughter just keeps the champagne flowing and hunkers down in her castle while the rest of the world is trying to survive a pandemic, put food on the table, pay the rent/mortgage etc. It shows the strength of character that she obviously did not inherit from her mother. Mind you, I am always wary of people who flaunt their "kindness" so publicly !

Yes, why do people doing charitable things feel the need to film themselves doing it? Having said that, at least they were doing something and they seemed very generous. The going backwards and forwards between the poverty of people in South Africa and the mother of all excess and frivolity at the Chateau looked in very bad taste. There couldn't have been a greater contrast and it just served to show the Chatelaine in a very poor light! So, if she was trying to make herself look good by showing that film, she certainly didn't succeed!

 

[ChocLili]

The Chateau Diaries and Doing it Ourselves
(with help from blatant product placement)

Both LOTLL and M Trotter should post “this video contains paid content” disclosures on their vlogs now. It’s out of hand and distracting from whatever little actual content is left.

MP’s desperate attempt to doggedly have Christmas dinner in his quarter finished ruin was seemingly an advertisement for Aga, F&M and Spode. I’m close to convinced these companies are sponsoring the little grifter. Aga-branded tea towels, Aga-branded pizza paddle (I bought it through eBay, sure) F&M festooned hamper (large), C&K t-shirt.

LOTL’s advent series put the ‘ad’ in advent. 24 days of a cavalcade of product openings - spare me (disclaimer- I only watched four of the ADvent vlogs; tell me if I’m wrong). Even the present our LOTL (solely represented by Prince Nostril Philip) sent via Cat (Ryan’s squeeze) to MP, consisting of non-descript brocante-ware, was encased in a way too big box designed to show off the Derek Jarvis artwork wrapping paper (download the file for £5).

Not since ‘Wilson’ floated in front of Tom Hanks in a FedEx box in Castaway have I witnessed such blatant product placement. The original charm is long gone.

 

[PeacockQueen]

Yes. It's hold/cold/hot/cold. Leaves the victim in a constant state of confusion.

Can you link/timestamp some examples of when she is cold to Marie? Never seen this and I've watched every video

the most powerful weapon is to confuse the victim, distort their reality so they stop trusting their judgement and dive deep into the rabbit hole ...

Can you link/timestamp some examples of her confusing and distorting reality of her friends/family/volunteers? Never seen it

 

[pettyicequeen]

France is no US, just to explain our foreign friends
French people have different approach to their government, they basically ignore it, the goverment is her for them not the other way around even if they get bossed by them, they know that they can abolish/overule it and they often do
The 6ppl rule is just that it is jot a law as far as i know
And all french ppl i know they didnt care the slightest about quarantine, lockdown etc
(Nor german ppl)
This is standard behaviour

Hi, German here with plenty of French friends - please kindly don't misrepresent our countries and their response to the pandemic, cheers! Firstly, the police DOES fine us for not sticking to the rules, and heftily so. Don't want to doxx myself too much here, but my city just had a massive mask-denier group try to stage a protest in the mask-only city centre and the police very strictly shut that down. In France, you are NOT allowed to break the rules, it is a strict, strict lockdown. Sure, some assholes will find ways to still go behind the police's back, since there are strict rules as to who can search or even enter your private residence, but this is still very much against the law.

No idea what weird, privileged people you know but fuck them for not sticking to the rules given the high death rate especially here in Germany. That's not normal behaviour, it is absolutely gross negligence. And, yes, it is against the law - we just had a law change that makes it possible to impose strict rules during a pandemic. But even if it is "just" a guideline, it is a guideline that common decency should dictate anyone with a soul to follow, because people are dying and suffering greatly. I spent Xmas alone because I didn't want to risk exposing any of my relatives, and so did most of the people I know and respect. THAT is "standard behaviour" here in Germany and France, not being a selfish asshole ignoring ethics.

 

[Incognito Chatelaine]

In complete agreement . I remember, very early on, in a live vlog , someone donated some money (not sure how much) LOTL barely acknowledged it as she was inundated with people throwing their money at her.

The same person who’d donated then later made a further comment - said something along the lines of

“Look after the money/because with it ...IT TOOK A LONG TIME TO SAVE...”

I recall thinking it sounded like an old person who had probably worked hard and valued every penny ... I wonder if they too have unsubscribed or how they feel to see her squaffing back the champagne and indulging herself with her every whim - including ’spensive hairdriers.
If ever proof were needed that the world is an unfair place, look no further than every single day in the life of LOTL.

I could not agree more, and after watching the most recent Advent vlog, I am filled with a mixture of rage and despair.

I am old and retired, I have worked my entire life, and have not only experienced my fair share of poverty, I have also witnessed good people suffer due to the injustices of this world. My home used to be open to disadvantaged widows for complimentary retreats (not allowed with COVID). It is possible, with a very modest pension, to ensure that they have every comfort. My memory of their sincere appreciation of the most simple gift (e.g. wool gloves) is now juxtaposed by the reckless, shameless and wasteful indulgence displayed on CD.

It was not entirely clear if SJ approved of BJJ purchasing a Christmas tree and (NEW AND EXPENSIVE) decorations to put in a bedroom but it should have been addressed, and certainly not aired; given the current misery endured by so many around the world. I originally thought that the idea was to use what one has, or improve what one has, in an ecologically and economically sound way to celebrate Christmas. However, this recent indulgence is just more than I can bear. I am utterly disgusted.

SJ and her sycophants would do well to remember that "willful waste makes woeful want".

 

[Incognito Chatelaine]

The same people accuse SJ of opulence yet don’t seem to pause and reflect on the extravagant cost of having children on themselves, society and the environment. Having kids is about the most opulent decision a person can make, buying a few secondhand armchairs is not.

The point of contention is not merely associated with trips to the brocante, but rather excessive expenditure on new and expensive items. It is offensive, also to me as a woman with no children. Moreover, the superficial and irresponsible way the chateau is being renovated is very disturbing for people who recognise the importance of these properties. There is a difference between renovating a chateau and gilting over the cracks.

Generally one's younger years are a time to accumulate personal belongings, but but by the time one reaches 45 years of age, a certain maturity sets in and life should be driven by more profound thoughts and objectives. This is known as generativity, and some reach it earlier than others. The opposite of this is stagnation, where one never really evolves from the stage of being constantly "in need" like a vulnerable child.

Recently SJ expressed a longing for an end to lockdown, so that she could travel to London and "go shopping". This contrasts starkly with her mother, who at the time was planning distributing necessities to the poor in South Africa. Generativity versus stagnation. I hope for SJ's sake, she will have an epiphany, curtail her spending, and properly care for the considerable possessions she already has...