forward emails sent to apple id to hotmail

I have a @mac.com email address, but for some reason, when I didn't renew - 3 months before icloud was introduced I was advised by Mac telephone support that icloud was free so why would I bother renewing an annual subscription for a 3month use - my mac account shut down.

then suddenly on a future upgrade, it reappeared... but I can't seem to receive or send emails from it...

I still have some accounts setup with this email address - nespresso for example and old friends have it, so I wouldn't know if they were emailing me...

how can I get emails forwarded to another account without losing the Apple ID - lets face it - all my iTunes purchases are on that @mac.com id and I don't want to lose access to them... unless I can forward them as well?

thanks

Abi