CHRISTMAS sameness is broken this year with festive Haagen-Dazs ice-cream cake variations. The ice-cream house, still bruised by the unanticipated rush for its ice-cream mooncakes earlier this year, puts its latest range of coffee, vanilla, chocolate and macadamia nut-flavoured Christmas cakes on sale at the beginning of next month. The one-kilogram cakes are sold in festive boxes for $298. Haagen-Dazs bosses, eager not to repeat the mooncake incident when the entire stock was pre-ordered by fax, are said to be amply prepared for the seasonal surge.

Indian cure AS Chinese restaurants break out the snake and other winter wonders to ward off seasonal ills, followers of herbal remedies are reaching for their Echinaforce, a potion said to do wonders for the immune system. Echinacea, a plant used by the Sioux Indians to cure all manner of maladies, has been distilled into drops and tablets to be used against colds and flu, among other ailments. According to Swiss homeopathic guru Dr Alfred Vogel, scientific studies have shown that echinacea extracts stimulate the production of killer T-cells that are our bodies' frontline of defence against infection. Echinaforce drops and pills are available from Health Gate in Central.

Bond market JAMES Bond is heading for Hong Kong. James Bond and his . . . Bollinger. Vintage, of course. We'll be seeing him, and the champagne, everywhere as the new movie, Goldeneye, opens on screens across the territory just before Christmas. Restaurants and retailers are being pulled into the Bond-Bollinger marketing mix with lucky draws. Buy a bottle from Oliver's, Pacific Wine Cellars, Decanter wine shop or the new La Cave d'Alfred wine shop in Happy Valley, and you get to enter a lucky draw for tickets.