The tapping of laptop keys is a sound which has come to characterise cafés such as Starbucks, as freelance workers and entrepreneurs settle themselves in these spaces as an alternative to forking out high prices for their own offices. But accountant Mark Hooper is turning this culture on its head.
Mr Hooper has brought the growing craze of co-working, which has become massive in America, to Cardiff as an alternative to working alone in cafés.
Indycube is a concept Mr Hooper has been developing for the past five years, but the space itself has been situated in the ITV media centre at Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff, for the past six months.

Lilo Grill House
City Road, Cardiff
*****
A smoky haze hangs, heavily laden with the aromas of garlic and the chargrill stove in the Cardiff’s Lilo Grill House. The Lebanese restaurant on City Road has a reputation for its delicious, tender shish and friendly atmosphere. Lebanese food pretty much coins everything from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, and can be a winner due to its simplistic approach of skewered meats, flatbread and fresh flavours of lemon juice and cracked black pepper.
Perhaps one of the most enticing smells around is that of meat, …

On the hunt for a recipe to reflect Cardiff’s rich multicultural diversity, I headed to one of the capital’s most vibrant areas, Grangetown. The spiralling whiffs of ginger, garlic and myriad spices streaming out of the door of Lahore Kebabish in Penarth Road brought me straight back to the seething streets of south India, where supper was viewed as more of a challenge than a foodstuff.
Owner and chef Khalid Hussian, 51, moved to Grangetown from Pakistan 22 years ago, and his sons and cousins all help out in the eatery.
I …

St Patrick’s Day celebrations began early in Cardiff city centre as world champion Irish dancers took to the streets with staff from O’Neill’s pub to raise money for local Welsh charity LATCH.
Cardiff is one of four cities taking part in the national “Join the Jig” campaign, which is one of many fundraising activities taking place across the 62 O’Neill’s pubs in the UK in the run up to St Patrick’s Day on Wednesday.

His work has been described as uncompromising, stark, discomforting and unsettling. But John describes his the latest a collection of poetry, The Acid Real, as ”beautiful, coming back to the places I have always been.”

Emer Martin spoke to the National Poet of Wales about her career and her family.

Musing on “How we came to live in unforgiving despair,” the incomparable stylings of Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip effortlessly produce the thought-provoking social commentary many have failed to elucidate.

When given the challenge to go belly dancing I couldn’t help but scoff a little. This was going to be a piece of cake. Whenever I have seen belly dancing in restaurants or on holiday I have always thought how easy it looked. Surely it is just a case of shaking your hips, waving your arms above your head and showing your belly a bit. Oh, how wrong I was.

The platform for Asian music in Wales has been put under threat by the proposed axing of the Asian Network by the BBC director-general, Mark Thompson, this week.
The station, which has come under severe criticism recently for falling listener numbers, plays a vital role in the promotion of Asian music across Wales but without its powerful backing, Welsh Asian music will find it difficult to reach the mainstream audience.

If you have only ever thought of Lebanese food in the context of strip-lit, sticky-floored kebab shops, the warm and welcoming Mina Restaurant and Cafe Bar will make you think again. Houmous and falafel are familiar names, but Mina, which has been running in the heart of Cathays since 1990, goes far beyond those to produce a huge range of dishes from this often-overlooked region.
For a Tuesday night, it was comfortably busy, with a broader range of customers than its student-ville location might suggest. Red-painted walls and glowing candles helped …

Danish pop outfit Alphabeat have been filling their diaries of late, with any available slot seeming like an affront to their current work ethic.
This said, the group’s vocal duo, Stine Bramsen and Anders SG, seemed surprisingly relaxed as they sat in a dingy office above Cardiff’s HMV this week.
Surprising, that is, because their second album, The Beat Is…, was released on Monday, mid-way through their UK tour with chart impresario Lady Gaga, leaving them just enough time to squeeze in a spate of in-store performances around the country.
But this visit …

A TEACHER who donned traditional Welsh dress to celebrate St David’s Day and tried to write a message of peace in chalk on the Senedd steps was moved on by security guards.

An exhibition to celebrate Cardiff and East Glamorgan Girlguiding has opened to celebrate the centenary of the movement.
The exhibition, which began on Tuesday March 2,  is being held at The Cardiff Story exhibition space in the Old Library, Hayes, and will celebrate the girl guides history throughout the UK and the world.
The Cardiff Story spokesman Jim Groves said: “On display there are different examples of camping methods used by the Guides from the 1950s up to the futuristic look of 2050, and they’ve got a dragon boat which was used …

Flow-Dem Crew – It Doesn\’t Matter
Students from a Cardiff school were rewarded for their success in a European video project by a trip to BBC Wales’s studios on Monday February 22.
Pupils from Willows High School in Tremorfa came first in the INDIE Goes Mobile competition held by the British Council to promote awareness of diversity and social cohesion.
They beat students from 47 other schools across the EU to claim the prize of a day being shown round the BBC’s Llandaff North studios and the sets of such shows as Pobol …

It is Cardiff as you have never seen it before – transformed into a toy town by a keen photographer.

Mark Rosoman snapped alternative landmarks like the IKEA store and the Royal Mail sorting office in Penarth Road, Grangetown, using a special technique called “tilt shift” to make them look as if they had been shrunk.

The BBC’s announcement to axe Radio Station 6 Music today has angered listeners and musicians throughout the UK. The BBC Introducing programme, run through 6 music, has helped many Welsh bands by giving them a platform and radio air time.
This is the only chance for bands, like Cardiff’s Decimals, who played at last year’s Swn festival at the Cardiff Arts Institute, to get recognition and build their fan base and without the radio station local artists will suffer.

Inside the 17th century smithy, a blacksmith hammered away at a strip of metal glowing from the heat of the forge. Sparks flew off the hot iron as a hinge slowly took shape beneath the soot-darkened beams – and Cheryl Cole stared out from a copy of the day’s Metro nestled in the corner.
The mix of eras is typical of the modern, hands-on approach of St Fagans National History Museum, Wales’s most popular tourist destination.
Founded in 1948, the open air museum is set in the grounds of St Fagans castle …

The name milling around music venues across the UK is Ellie Goulding.

After winning the BBC Sound of 2010 the young star-let has been propelled into the spot-light and endorsements from the likes of Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens, have helped boost records sales and led to a Critics Choice Award at the recent 2010 BRIT Awards.

Certificate: 15
Star Rating: 4/5
It is a brave idea to create a film based on one of the most renowned writers of all time and entirely overshadow him with his wife.  However it is a decision Michael Hoffman makes to his credit in The Last Station.
Without the hysterical, dramatic and tempestuous Sofya Tolstoy (Helen Mirren), The Last Station would be severely lacking the passion which Tolstoy himself conveyed in his world-famous literature.
The film suffers a slow beginning, with a disappointing performance by James McEvoy, whose attempt at shy secretary Valentin Bulgakov …

A blur of vibrant colour meets the eye and the sound of thumping feet and pumping music mingles in the air outside the doors of studio one.For 34-years dancers young and old, novice and professional, have sprung, leapt, shimmied and side stepped their way through the doors of Rubicon Dance Cardiff.

Madame Fromage is the kind of restaurant a small, malicious part of you doesn’t want to live up to the hype. Homemade pies, locally-sourced food, a deli you can drool over as you wait for your lunch to be prepared – it ticks too many boxes.

BRINGING back the revival of Michael Blakemore’s period-set production of the pulsating thriller Tosca for a second year, Welsh National Opera could be accused of short-changing the audience. But no one will feel out-of-pocket after this faithful and traditional staging of Puccini’s popular opera.
Blakemore’s production is still enthralling almost 20 years after it was first staged. One wonders how musicologist Joseph Kerman could have dismissed one of the world’s most popular operas as a “shabby little shocker”. This little gem in WNO’s repertoire is a veritable treat.
Celebrated prima donna Tosca …

Hispanic nu-gypsy rock isn’t the most well known genre in the musical world but Alejandro and the Magic Tombelinos provide such a performance you can hardly fail to get swept away.
Alejandro has toured with the famous Fanfare Ciocarlia and on Thursday February 18 he brought his eccentric style and unruly backing band to St David’s Hall, Cardiff.
They didn’t have the most auspicious of starts. When we arrived, the band were still huddled in a corner behind the speakers, busy drinking beer rather than tuning up. But a heavily accented apology …

The usual subtlety of Oscar Wilde’s watertight script is executed with zestful aplomb but a pantomime villain and a village idiot detract somewhat from the play’s antiquated magic.

The student produced play opens in the charmingly understated set of Algernon’s front room. The two self-styled Earnests comfortably settle into musings on marriage and the delights and dreadful duties of a life of leisure as they bicker to the backdrop of austere bookcases and grand chaise longues.

CARDIFF theatre mini-troupe Dirty Protest are all about being spontaneous. Tonight’s show at Cardiff Arts Institute, Out With the Old, saw them reading from their scripts on stage after only two nights’ practice.

The dragon writhed and roared destroying the offerings placed before its voracious maw. Well, almost. Chinese new year celebrations kicked into full swing this weekend as members of the Cardiff Chinese Cultural Association organised and performed the Dragon Dance on Cardiff’s Tudor Street.

From the midst of the smoke in front of us emerged a lone figure standing strong as the music slowly built to a crescendo. Through the clearing smoke, a spotlight followed the figure as they glided forwards , effortlessly moving across the ice as if they were one.
They came to a halt and suddenly, with a bang, the rink was flooded with light and the figure multiplied as the daring and visually spectacular show Holiday on Ice kicked off at Cardiff International Arena on Tuesday.

Celebrity musicians have been flocking to a drum shop in north Cardiff.

Almost a month since an earthquake shocked Haiti a CD to help raise funds for the devastated community has been launched in Cardiff.

Chris Rees while in Haiti in 2002
Steve Garrett and Welsh singer/songwriter Chris Rees visited the Caribbean island in 2002 to work with schools in the north of the country as part of The Haiti Fund.

The idea of romance flourishing in the seaside town of Porthcawl may seem a little strange but this little town on the gold coast of South Wales is a hidden treasure.
Porthcawl nestles between a ring of hills and a series of deep bays, which make it one of the premier surfing spots along the West coast, and takes 30-45 minutes by car or bus from Cardiff.As you drive in through the town you can really feel the warmth of a community where people still know their neighbours names and …

LOCAL residents are “up in arms” about plans to hold two major concerts in a 10-day period at Cardiff City Stadium this summer.

Welsh band Stereophonics are playing a sell-out show in the 32,000 seater venue on June 5, while an announcement about the act or date for the second show has not yet been made.

But Canton councillor Ramesh Patel has accused Cardiff City football club of “moving the goalposts” on an agreement not to hold concerts at the Leckwith Road ground.

Beer festivals still seem the last preserve of the alpha male, the heady scent of hops in the air, burly arms pressed together, men eager to get a taste of the latest ale with its suitably odd name. Women enter at their peril, or gather shivering outside the tent waiting to pick their errant beer-expert up off the floor at closing time.
Of course it’s an exaggerated picture, but walking into one of these bastions of masculinity as a woman can still turn heads. Not so at the NosDa beer festival …

Cardiff University’s Act One went for laughs over substance at their performance of Much Ado About Nothing at the YMCA theatre in The Walk, Roath.
It was a risky choice, and one made even more questionable by the programme blurb, which told us: “There isn’t really anything we cut out… Okay, so maybe two characters and two scenes, but trust us… they were rubbish.”
After such a casual dismissal of none other than Shakespeare,  I watched the curtain rise with more than a little scepticism. But the gamble payed off – mostly. Their …

A Cardiff-based Welsh Assembly initiative has used an X Factor style talent show to help battle anti-social behaviour.
Last Tuesday, Rumney Community Centre staged Rumney’s Got Talent, a talent show for young people run in conjunction with the Communities’ First Programme. The show was the culmination of four weeks of free workshops and auditions.
The performances were outstanding with a selection of aspiring singers, hip-hop dancers and improvised freestyle rappers competing to impress the judges.
Codie Davenport, 15, took the top prize, the chance to perform on Radio Cardiff and a £30 gift …

A CARDIFF school was host to BBC’s The Big Questions, a programme discussing the big moral issues of the day. The show, hosted by Nicky Campbell, came to Michaelston Community College in Michaelston Road, Ely to discuss the questions surrounding assisted suicide, the payment of ransoms and inter-country adoption.

The topical issues were discussed by members of the audience and special guests LBC Radio talk show host James O’Brien, Falklands war veteran and charity campaigner Simon Weston, and General Synod member Christina Rees.

Some lighter goings-on in Cardiff this week.

Vintage is everywhere right now – even Kate Moss is visiting her local Oxfam for a classic 1980s leather jacket – and Cardiff is embracing this fashion phenomenon with open arms.

Walking along Albany Road in Cardiff there isn’t much variation between charity shops and takeaways. Look beyond the tired shop fronts and take a stroll down to the end of Angus Road where you can tap into one of Cardiff’s best-kept secrets. The hidden treasure trove of the Milkwood Gallery, opened last October, is somewhere everyone should visit.

Going to watch stand-up comedy can sometimes be uncomfortable and awkward, especially if you’ve ended up sitting in the front row and will undoubtedly be picked on throughout the set to every other audience member’s relief and amusement.

In Cardiff last Tuesday Laura Solon proved she does not conform to this stand-up stereotype and produced 90 minutes of entertaining, light hearted laughs, mocking everyone from Australians and Parisians right down to lowly office workers. Solon made a point early on that the role of the audience is to sit quietly in the dark and watch in awe, which for the most part we did.

Primary colours and popular film themes enchanted a crowd full of children at St David’s Hall in Cardiff tonight.

The one-night show by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Journeys and Adventures, was the perfect introduction to classical music for youngsters.

Llandaff North is to get a fresh lick of paint with the introduction of The Boiler House, a graffiti project organised by a Cardiff group called Peaceful Progress.
Bryce Davies, 26, a founding member of Peaceful Progress, has recently bought an old boiler house on Andrews Road which has been gutted and painted white to use as a free art space.
Mr Davies needed to buy a new studio space and decided to open up the area for the public.
The site consists of an art gallery, supplies store and a huge studio …

More than 40 people attended the 2010 Cardiff Civic Society quiz at Insole Court in Llandaff.
The annual social event began with an informative and entertaining talk about the history of the grade two listed building by guest speaker John Isaacs, former headmaster of Cantonian High School, who played a key role in Insole Court’s restoration.