You need a good selection of glasses: cocktail glasses, martini glasses, nice wine glasses, some shot glasses and big balloon glasses for brandy, which retain the smell and make the brandy taste nicer. I would recommend a nice tumbler if you want to serve something like a Jameson and ice.

>> Offer a good selection of drinks. Port and brandy go down very well at Christmas and I would also serve martinis. You definitely need your cocktail shaker and crushed ice . . . buy, borrow or rent a crushed ice machine for the professional touch. Pour it into a frosted martini glass to get the best result. It has to be served chilled. I was once served a warm one and it was disgusting.

Generally I would use a lemon rind in it but not olives, which I don't like.

>> There's now a lot of good wine available at reasonable prices and you just have to shop around.

There are many smaller wine shops you can visit which will point you in the right direction. People tend to go for the main labels because they're too scared to ask for help but they shouldn't be. Always ask for recommendation.

>> For the non-drinkers, because it's Christmas, you want something fun like a fruit punch.

However, don't put too many juices in it because it will be sickly. Orange and blackcurrant is very tasty and very simple.

>> The quintessential Christmas drink is mulled wine. My mother has a great Danish recipe, which is as follows:

Pia Bang's glogg One bottle of red wine One carton of red grape juice Three glasses of water 170g sugar Three mandarins, unpeeled, with six to eight cloves in them 50g raisins 50g white almond in very small pieces 1/2 tsp cinnamon Put the mandarins, water, cinnamon and raisins into a pot and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the red wine, grape juice and sugar and very importantly, do not boil.

Just before serving, put the almonds into a good wine glass and serve with a nice white napkin tied around the glass, into which a spoon has been placed.

READ IT'S the news that every woman dreads to hear, but when Marisa Acocella Marchetto was diagnosed with breast cancer, she refused to take it lying down. Instead, she donned her five-inch heels and vowed to "kick cancer's butt". The New York cartoonist was a wellknown girl about town, due to get married three weeks' later, at the time of her diagnosis. The marriage went ahead anyway and Marchetto found some comfort in her two great loves, fashion and illustration. The result is Cancer Vixen, a graphic memoir of her 11month experience of the disease and her treatment. It's a lifeaffirming and often humorous account, with her shoes playing a pivotal part throughout the book (Chemo # 1 . . . Charles Jourdan blue metallic lucite pumps). Marchetto is now 100% cancer free and a film of her story, starring Cate Blanchett, is set to be made.

Cancer Vixen (Fourth Estate) by Marisa Acocella Marchetto is out now.

SHOP SHOPPING is the number one leisure activity. Fact. Alright, not a scientific fact per se but who's going to argue? We now allegedly enjoy a heightened retail experience, thanks to in-store stylists, designer diffusion lines and sales at any given time of the year. But sometimes, it seems that all the fun has gone out of it. There's very little sense of potential new discoveries or anticipation of finding anything quirky and original . . . you hit the stores with a very good idea of what you're going to find there because you've seen it featured in a magazine or newspaper.

For magpies who prefer their shopping to be a little less structured, try the Loft Market, a new space on the top floor of the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre. Stocking jewellery, clothes, paintings and prints from a wide range of well-known and up-and-coming creatives (including Chupi Sweetman, Kate O'Brien and Laura de Burca), there's a touch of London's Portobello Market to the Loft, but obviously, it's better because it's Irish, and there are new additions on a regular basis.

Spotted there on a visit last Sunday: parkas for 10; a vintage snakeskin belt for 45 and stunning little brocade evening capes for under 100.

It's open at the weekends, from 12 noon to 6pm, with more dates being added in the run-up to Christmas, and its organisers hope that it will continue to grow in 2007.

Tel: 01 671700 or email theloftmarket@gmail. com for more information.