QVC UK Q Gossip Page

[Patrick H. Hoy]

Hello & Happy Sunday to you all!

Just wanted to let you all know that Quacker Factory and Patrick Hoy have made the Q Gossip Page here in the UK!

Please check out my video interview with Will Gowing of QVC UK - and make sure to click on both Quacker Factory links under the video where you can learn more about Quacker Factory.  Also make sure to join the Quacker Community on the Quacker Factory website where you'll be able to meet other Quackers from around the world!

http://blogs.qvcuk.com/?nonqiclink 

Hope you can join me tomorrow (Monday) on QVC UK at 15:00 & 20:00 (UK Time) where I'll be sharing some beautiful and fun Quacker Factory items with you - we're going to have a fun time 'Quacking Up' the UK!  For the show times listed as EST, please go www.quackerfactory.com where you'll see my show times listed  along with our beautiful Angel's times - and after the times, we've even put a link there to make it easy for you to watch the UK shows on your computer - it's doesn't get any easier - or more fun! - than that!  And while you're there, check out my first blog as well!

Really hope you can join me on Monday - Happy's going to happen!!!

Quack, Quack & Cheerio!

Patrick

[Sue Byler]

Hi Patrick you sound so excited and happy on the video. Hope you have great shows on Monday. Break a leg. Isn't that what they say in show biz? You will have those UK ladies Quacking up.

I want to thank you for posting here as well as on Facebook. I know that some of the ladies here are not on Facebook.

Quack Quack

[Patrick H. Hoy]

My absolute pleasure Sue - and thank  you!  I just want to make sure that everyone hears the news and can join in!  :-)

Thanks again - and yes, you're right - the correct saying is indeed 'Break a Leg'!!!!

Have a Quack-Tastic week!!!  xx

[Colleen]

Hi Patrick,

 I could not watch you it would not come on my computor. It is too slow and by the time I get it to where I want it the show would be over. I will hear from my friend and she will tell me about the show. Sorry that I missed it.

 I have a question for you and I hope you can give me an answer. I have a friend that lives in England and I would like to send her a gift and I thought if I could buy it from QVC in England it would be easier. My question is how do I go about this? I do not know how to convert dollars into pounds and wonder if they would tell me when I put it on my card?  I do not know if I can or not and if you don't know understand just thought you might.

   Colleen

[Gail Norusis]

Hi Patrick,

I caught part of your last show of the day yesterday. You are such a natural. You are so relaxed and informative. QVC UK seems a little more layed back than here in the states. Do the British really get Quackers?  You don't have an accent and I heard you reference your mother in the states so how did you end up in England? If that's too personal you can just ignore the question or tell me it's none of my business. It's just that I'm always interested in learning more about people and their lives. It's my natural curiosity coming out. Anyway,I think you are doing a marvelous job and you seem to really enjoy what you are doing. Keep it up!

Gail 

[Patrick H. Hoy]

Hello Colleen!

Thanks for your message - that means a lot to me - sorry you couldn't see it from your computer - I know how that is - I'm having problems with the sound on mine at the minute.

You are so nice to be thinking of your friend over here!  I think if you go to the UK QVC site www.qvcuk.com and do a search on Quacker Factory, you'll find a lot of cute items on there - and some of them will be discounted - I believe.  You might be able to sign in with your US Q Number - but I'm not 100% sure about that.  Anyway, if you bought directly off the site, you could have them ship it to your friends address - rather than it being shipped all the way to you at a higher cost - and then you having to turn right around and ship it back to her in the UK - at an even higher cost.  I am pretty sure that they will allow you to use your US credit card - I use my UK one in the States all the time.  Each UK Pound/Sterling is equal to roughly $1.55 - so something that is listed as £10 would equal ROUGHLY $10.55 - but do remember that exchange rates fluctuate daily - if not hourly - but that is a ROUGH guide for right now.

I hope that works - it's worth checking out.  Let me know if you have any problems and I'll see what I can do.  :-)

Have a Quack-Tabulous week!!!

Colleen said:

Hi Patrick,

 I could not watch you it would not come on my computor. It is too slow and by the time I get it to where I want it the show would be over. I will hear from my friend and she will tell me about the show. Sorry that I missed it.

 I have a question for you and I hope you can give me an answer. I have a friend that lives in England and I would like to send her a gift and I thought if I could buy it from QVC in England it would be easier. My question is how do I go about this? I do not know how to convert dollars into pounds and wonder if they would tell me when I put it on my card?  I do not know if I can or not and if you don't know understand just thought you might.

   Colleen

[Patrick H. Hoy]

Hello Gail!

Thank you SO much for watching part of the show yesterday - I am so touched by that!  And thank you for your very kind words - they mean a lot to me.  You know, when I'm on set, I just think about Jeanne and ask myself, what would she say right now - I have no doubt that she is right there with me whispering in my ear each show.  :-)

I am actually American - my father was a West Point graduate and he and Mom are originally from Arkansas - but they have lived in NYC for many years now - and I went to high school in NY - so even though we were a military family that moved around a bit, I consider NY my home.

When I graduated from college, I worked for Marriott Hotels for about 9 years - and was a General Manager and loved ever minute of it - that's where I got my love of people from - and where I learned the true importance of customer service.  When I was in high school and college, my summer job was working for a designer named Larry Levine - you may remember him from many years ago - so that's where I got my love of fashion from.  When I left Marriott, I became a Management Consultant and have worked with companies all over America, Europe and Eastern Europe - and have lived in Rome for a year, The Netherlands for a year and then moved to London 11 years ago - for what was supposed to be a 10 month work project - I loved it so much, I stayed!  And this is definitely 'home' now - but I get back to my parents home in NYC as much as I can.

But actually before all of that, I wanted to be an actor - and that's one of the college degrees that I have.  I did that for a while after I graduated, but you know how tough that business is - and that's why I went to work for Marriott.

I met Jeanne on the 2006 Quacker Cruise - because my best friend, David Fritz, of Cruise Everything, asked me to go on the cruise to help him for the week.  I know David because for years, I lived in Ft. Myers, FL - which is where Cruise Everything is based.

Anyway, on the 2nd day of the 2006 Quacker Cruise, I was running around the theatre/auditorium during one of Jeanne's Quack Back sessions with the microphone so that anyone who had a question would be heard by Jeanne and her Dream Team (that's what I love to call the design team - because I think they make dreamy items!)  :-) - when all  of a sudden, Jeanne looked out in the audience at me and stopped everything - and said, 'Okay, who's my little Robin Williams boy down there - you are adorable!'  She always thought I looked like Robin Williams the actor - which many people think as well - so she used to call me that every once in a while!  :-)  Anyway, after that cruise, she wanted me to be the guest host for Quacker Factory here in the UK - but there was someone else already doing it over here and she was under contract directly with QVC UK.  So instead, Jeanne brought me on board with Quacker to do some of the business consulting that I did at that time - and to help bridge the gap between Quacker in the US and Quacker over here with QVC UK - and I worked with the lovely presenter over here before she would on air.  Her name is Jenny and she left at the start of this year to pursue some other great opportunities for her - and when we knew she was leaving, we jumped in there to have me take over and for Jeanne's dream back in 2006 to come true!  I sure do wish that she could have been here to see it all happen as she wanted it to - but I know 100% that she is aware and she's looking over me and all of us - and that makes me very happy.  :-)

England is on a small island - so there certainly aren't as many people in this country as there are in the States - which means there aren't a lot of Quackers - but we've got a few - and I can't wait to meet more of them - I'm sure they are as wonderful as their 'sisters' are in America - and hopefully I'll be able to meet more of them as we move forward.  They are a little bit more conservative and quiet over here - but just like all of you, they love to feel great and happy when they get dressed in the morning - and they love high-quality clothes just like Quacker Factory makes - so I'm sure once we spread the word a little more over here, we'll see more and more British Quackers - and as you can tell from my shows yesterday, I'm helping them get up the courage to Quack a little more!  The models I worked with have modelled Quacker for years over here - and they each gave me a big hug last night after the show and told me that they had never had so much fun as they did last night - so I know they're 'catching the Quacker Spirit' as well!!!

Thanks so much for your message - and don't ever hesitate to ask me anything - I'm an open-book!

Have a lovely week - and thanks again for watching!!

Gail Norusis said:

Hi Patrick,

I caught part of your last show of the day yesterday. You are such a natural. You are so relaxed and informative. QVC UK seems a little more layed back than here in the states. Do the British really get Quackers?  You don't have an accent and I heard you reference your mother in the states so how did you end up in England? If that's too personal you can just ignore the question or tell me it's none of my business. It's just that I'm always interested in learning more about people and their lives. It's my natural curiosity coming out. Anyway,I think you are doing a marvelous job and you seem to really enjoy what you are doing. Keep it up!

Gail 

[Sue Byler]

My Dear Patrick, I hope you won't be mad at my pointing out that your math is wrong.  An item listed at 10 pounds at a $1.55 exchange rate would be $15.50. I work with numbers everyday so it jumped out at me.

Patrick H. Hoy said:

Hello Colleen!

Thanks for your message - that means a lot to me - sorry you couldn't see it from your computer - I know how that is - I'm having problems with the sound on mine at the minute.

You are so nice to be thinking of your friend over here!  I think if you go to the UK QVC site www.qvcuk.com and do a search on Quacker Factory, you'll find a lot of cute items on there - and some of them will be discounted - I believe.  You might be able to sign in with your US Q Number - but I'm not 100% sure about that.  Anyway, if you bought directly off the site, you could have them ship it to your friends address - rather than it being shipped all the way to you at a higher cost - and then you having to turn right around and ship it back to her in the UK - at an even higher cost.  I am pretty sure that they will allow you to use your US credit card - I use my UK one in the States all the time.  Each UK Pound/Sterling is equal to roughly $1.55 - so something that is listed as £10 would equal ROUGHLY $10.55 - but do remember that exchange rates fluctuate daily - if not hourly - but that is a ROUGH guide for right now.

I hope that works - it's worth checking out.  Let me know if you have any problems and I'll see what I can do.  :-)

Have a Quack-Tabulous week!!!

Colleen said:

Hi Patrick,

 I could not watch you it would not come on my computor. It is too slow and by the time I get it to where I want it the show would be over. I will hear from my friend and she will tell me about the show. Sorry that I missed it.

 I have a question for you and I hope you can give me an answer. I have a friend that lives in England and I would like to send her a gift and I thought if I could buy it from QVC in England it would be easier. My question is how do I go about this? I do not know how to convert dollars into pounds and wonder if they would tell me when I put it on my card?  I do not know if I can or not and if you don't know understand just thought you might.

   Colleen

[Patrick H. Hoy]

You are SO right Sue!!!  I've been typing messages all day and must be losing my marbles!!!  :-)  And I actually LOVE math!!!  :-)  Thanks for the correction - silly, silly me!!!!  xxx

Sue Byler said:

My Dear Patrick, I hope you won't be mad at my pointing out that your math is wrong.  An item listed at 10 pounds at a $1.55 exchange rate would be $15.50. I work with numbers everyday so it jumped out at me.

Patrick H. Hoy said:

Hello Colleen!

Thanks for your message - that means a lot to me - sorry you couldn't see it from your computer - I know how that is - I'm having problems with the sound on mine at the minute.

You are so nice to be thinking of your friend over here!  I think if you go to the UK QVC site www.qvcuk.com and do a search on Quacker Factory, you'll find a lot of cute items on there - and some of them will be discounted - I believe.  You might be able to sign in with your US Q Number - but I'm not 100% sure about that.  Anyway, if you bought directly off the site, you could have them ship it to your friends address - rather than it being shipped all the way to you at a higher cost - and then you having to turn right around and ship it back to her in the UK - at an even higher cost.  I am pretty sure that they will allow you to use your US credit card - I use my UK one in the States all the time.  Each UK Pound/Sterling is equal to roughly $1.55 - so something that is listed as £10 would equal ROUGHLY $10.55 - but do remember that exchange rates fluctuate daily - if not hourly - but that is a ROUGH guide for right now.

I hope that works - it's worth checking out.  Let me know if you have any problems and I'll see what I can do.  :-)

Have a Quack-Tabulous week!!!

Colleen said:

Hi Patrick,

 I could not watch you it would not come on my computor. It is too slow and by the time I get it to where I want it the show would be over. I will hear from my friend and she will tell me about the show. Sorry that I missed it.

 I have a question for you and I hope you can give me an answer. I have a friend that lives in England and I would like to send her a gift and I thought if I could buy it from QVC in England it would be easier. My question is how do I go about this? I do not know how to convert dollars into pounds and wonder if they would tell me when I put it on my card?  I do not know if I can or not and if you don't know understand just thought you might.

   Colleen

[Gail Norusis]

Patrick,

Thank you so much for sharing your interesting bio. I'm sure Jeanne must be among the stars looking down and feeling delighted that both of her handpicked delegates are now hosting Quacker shows on both sides of the Atlantic. (I'm not like Snooki-I know my oceans-little pop culture reference there) In any case I really do believe that Quacker is some of the best manufactured clothing around. I have been buying since the very beginning and I still have stuff from back then and you can't say that about most items of clothing. I am what I call an"equal opportunity" Quacker and wear stuff from the very delicately sparkled to a big old honking Santa across my chest. "If they make it I will buy" -to paraphrase
 Field of Dreams.

Isn't life funny sometimes. Here you went on a cruise to help out a friend and you end up with a whole new career because of it. One never knows what is around the next corner. It caught my eye when you said that you had even done some consulting in eastern European countries. Neither my husband or myself are well traveled and have never been to Europe but he has Lithuanian ancestery and I have Polish so I was wondering if these were any of the eastern European countries that you had been to and if so what were your impressions.

I will try to tune in again for a bit next time you are on. It was interesting seeing how things were done in the UK. In honor of you name I will also wish you a Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Have fun!

Gail
Patrick H. Hoy said:

Hello Gail!

Thank you SO much for watching part of the show yesterday - I am so touched by that!  And thank you for your very kind words - they mean a lot to me.  You know, when I'm on set, I just think about Jeanne and ask myself, what would she say right now - I have no doubt that she is right there with me whispering in my ear each show.  :-)

I am actually American - my father was a West Point graduate and he and Mom are originally from Arkansas - but they have lived in NYC for many years now - and I went to high school in NY - so even though we were a military family that moved around a bit, I consider NY my home.

When I graduated from college, I worked for Marriott Hotels for about 9 years - and was a General Manager and loved ever minute of it - that's where I got my love of people from - and where I learned the true importance of customer service.  When I was in high school and college, my summer job was working for a designer named Larry Levine - you may remember him from many years ago - so that's where I got my love of fashion from.  When I left Marriott, I became a Management Consultant and have worked with companies all over America, Europe and Eastern Europe - and have lived in Rome for a year, The Netherlands for a year and then moved to London 11 years ago - for what was supposed to be a 10 month work project - I loved it so much, I stayed!  And this is definitely 'home' now - but I get back to my parents home in NYC as much as I can.

But actually before all of that, I wanted to be an actor - and that's one of the college degrees that I have.  I did that for a while after I graduated, but you know how tough that business is - and that's why I went to work for Marriott.

I met Jeanne on the 2006 Quacker Cruise - because my best friend, David Fritz, of Cruise Everything, asked me to go on the cruise to help him for the week.  I know David because for years, I lived in Ft. Myers, FL - which is where Cruise Everything is based.

Anyway, on the 2nd day of the 2006 Quacker Cruise, I was running around the theatre/auditorium during one of Jeanne's Quack Back sessions with the microphone so that anyone who had a question would be heard by Jeanne and her Dream Team (that's what I love to call the design team - because I think they make dreamy items!)  :-) - when all  of a sudden, Jeanne looked out in the audience at me and stopped everything - and said, 'Okay, who's my little Robin Williams boy down there - you are adorable!'  She always thought I looked like Robin Williams the actor - which many people think as well - so she used to call me that every once in a while!  :-)  Anyway, after that cruise, she wanted me to be the guest host for Quacker Factory here in the UK - but there was someone else already doing it over here and she was under contract directly with QVC UK.  So instead, Jeanne brought me on board with Quacker to do some of the business consulting that I did at that time - and to help bridge the gap between Quacker in the US and Quacker over here with QVC UK - and I worked with the lovely presenter over here before she would on air.  Her name is Jenny and she left at the start of this year to pursue some other great opportunities for her - and when we knew she was leaving, we jumped in there to have me take over and for Jeanne's dream back in 2006 to come true!  I sure do wish that she could have been here to see it all happen as she wanted it to - but I know 100% that she is aware and she's looking over me and all of us - and that makes me very happy.  :-)

England is on a small island - so there certainly aren't as many people in this country as there are in the States - which means there aren't a lot of Quackers - but we've got a few - and I can't wait to meet more of them - I'm sure they are as wonderful as their 'sisters' are in America - and hopefully I'll be able to meet more of them as we move forward.  They are a little bit more conservative and quiet over here - but just like all of you, they love to feel great and happy when they get dressed in the morning - and they love high-quality clothes just like Quacker Factory makes - so I'm sure once we spread the word a little more over here, we'll see more and more British Quackers - and as you can tell from my shows yesterday, I'm helping them get up the courage to Quack a little more!  The models I worked with have modelled Quacker for years over here - and they each gave me a big hug last night after the show and told me that they had never had so much fun as they did last night - so I know they're 'catching the Quacker Spirit' as well!!!

Thanks so much for your message - and don't ever hesitate to ask me anything - I'm an open-book!

Have a lovely week - and thanks again for watching!!

Gail Norusis said:

Hi Patrick,

I caught part of your last show of the day yesterday. You are such a natural. You are so relaxed and informative. QVC UK seems a little more layed back than here in the states. Do the British really get Quackers?  You don't have an accent and I heard you reference your mother in the states so how did you end up in England? If that's too personal you can just ignore the question or tell me it's none of my business. It's just that I'm always interested in learning more about people and their lives. It's my natural curiosity coming out. Anyway,I think you are doing a marvelous job and you seem to really enjoy what you are doing. Keep it up!

Gail 

[Patrick H. Hoy]

Gail,

Thanks for the message - and I LOVE the pop culture references - they were not lost on me!  :-)  

I spent a year travelling back and forth from London to Slovakia - and it was a really wonderful experience - and the people were great - and believe it or not, so was the food!  I have a few Lithuanian friends here in London - and they are great friends - and I love hearing what they say about their home country - and the differences between there and living in London.  I've never been there - or Poland - but Slovakia is so close.  I was supposed to go to Poland for a meeting several years ago, but it got cancelled.  We have a really big Polish community here in London - so there are a lot of great Polish restaurants that my friends have taken me to - they are GREAT!  Hopefully one day I'll be able to visit there.

Thanks again - LOVE hearing from you!

And thanks for the St. Patrick's Day wishes - I've got an Irish friend of mine who is a chef and cookbook author over here, James McIntosh - he is baking a St. Patrick's Day cake - whatever that is - and he's inviting us over this weekend to try it - I'm sure it's going to be great!  I'll let you know.

Have a Quack-Tabulous weekend yourself!!!

xxx 

[Gail Norusis]

Patrick,

So my curiosity has been piqued. What was the Saint Patrick's Day cake all about? Hope you had a fun/interesting weekend.

We attended a concert called One Night With Queen performed by Gary Mullen and The Works. I'm wondering if you had seen or heard of them as they started,I believe,in the UK in the year 2000. Anyway,now they are on a U.S. tour but when they return to the UK try to see them if you can if you like that type of music. I like just about all types of music from Broadway to folk to country to rock. They do a wonderful job and the lead guitar player is excellent and Gary Mullen is so energetic it makes you tired just watching him perform. This is the second time that I have seen them. I went last year with my son and daughter-in-law because my husband was in Florida golfing. This year he was home and I really wanted him to see them so we went again.

Now you need to educate me a bit more. What does an on air presenter do when they are not presenting? Go to meetings-get a second job? I am not at all savvy about these things so anything you are willing to share I am eager to hear. Thanks for your patience with all my questions. I always love to learn new things,(unless it is something boring) but how could clothing and TV be boring?

Gail

   

Patrick H. Hoy said:

Gail,

Thanks for the message - and I LOVE the pop culture references - they were not lost on me!  :-)  

I spent a year travelling back and forth from London to Slovakia - and it was a really wonderful experience - and the people were great - and believe it or not, so was the food!  I have a few Lithuanian friends here in London - and they are great friends - and I love hearing what they say about their home country - and the differences between there and living in London.  I've never been there - or Poland - but Slovakia is so close.  I was supposed to go to Poland for a meeting several years ago, but it got cancelled.  We have a really big Polish community here in London - so there are a lot of great Polish restaurants that my friends have taken me to - they are GREAT!  Hopefully one day I'll be able to visit there.

Thanks again - LOVE hearing from you!

And thanks for the St. Patrick's Day wishes - I've got an Irish friend of mine who is a chef and cookbook author over here, James McIntosh - he is baking a St. Patrick's Day cake - whatever that is - and he's inviting us over this weekend to try it - I'm sure it's going to be great!  I'll let you know.

Have a Quack-Tabulous weekend yourself!!!

xxx 

[Patrick H. Hoy]

Hello Gail!!

I have no idea how this lovely message of yours escaped from my radar - so sorry that it's taken me this long to get back to you!

Well, it ends up that my crazy chef friend had us all excited about a super-duper St. Patrick's Day cake - I really didn't know what to expect - as it turns out, he did a lovely homemade carrot cake that he died as green as green can be - and even though it looked hysterical, it was YUMMY!!  He also cooked a full Irish meal of corned beef and the whole works - it was great fun - he even had the beer died green - silly, silly, silly - it reminded me of something that Jeanne Bice would have done!  :-)

I haven't seen One Night with Queen - but I love that band - and will now be on the lookout for Gary Mullen and the Works.  Queen is SO popular over here - even the Royal Family love them!  How absolutely wonderful that you got to see them TWICE!!!  That's a great recommendation/testimonial - so you can bet I'll be on the lookout for them - sounds like great fun!

When I'm not presenting for Quacker Factory, I do some stage acting in London with a theatre group I started with some friends - we do a couple of shows a year in various pubs here in London that also have smaller and more intimate theatres/stages in them - it's great fun.  I also do voice-over work and some commercials.  But primarily I also work with the Quacker Factory team in the States to liaise with the QVC Buyers and Planners here in the UK before our shows.  And this next week I'm actually coming to the States and will be on QVC USA with Angel for the big 2-hour Garden Party show!  It's next Thursday from 10pm to midnight EDT - really hope you can watch!  And if you're on Twitter, please do tweet along with us - I'll be asking questions on Twitter live during the show - and reading off the tweets that Quackers send in - it's going to be great fun - and I'm SO excited to be sharing the set with Angel - she and I are such great friends and I adore her!!!

Thanks again for your message - always a pleasure and delight to hear from you!

Have a Quack-A-Licious week!!!!

xxx