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What's not to love about Gregory's Girl?

A quintessential boy meets girl love story, set in surburban Scotland.

Charming, whimsical and often surreal - who can forget the wandering Penguin, or Chic Murray's scene stealing turn as the head master, or the schoolboys trying to cadge a lift to Caracas?

It was the first film I recall which not only showed a familar landscape but also had dialogue which, for once, reflected my own dialect (right down to Clare Grogan's jauntily angled beret - or as Gregory says "yer berry".)

And it created that most unlikely of concepts - a love story set in Cumbernauld.

But for Cumbernauld, read any surburban neighbourhood in the late 70s and early 80s, neat and tidy, full of new gadgets and new houses, where the children play in the street, and the worst thing the local schoolboys do is peek in bedroom windows.

It's an era now looked back on with nostalgia in films such as Son of Rambow.

But back then, this was a film which caught the imagination of Scots cinema-goers.

At Edinburgh's Dominion Cinema, it ran for three years, setting a record for both the cinema and the capital.

Dominion manager Alasdair Cameron, whose family owns the cinema, began working as an usher when the film opened in 1980, and recalls director Bill Forsyth popping in from time to time to see how it was going.

Part of the joy of the film is the performances. For most of the young cast, it was their first film, and for some their first acting experience.

Only Dee Hepburn, who played Dorothy, had much previous acting experience.

Ironically, it was she who eventually drifted out of acting.

Organisers of Sunday's 30th anniversary screening were struggling to locate her, until her daughter came along to another Glasgow Film Festival event and told co-director Alan Hunter that her mother was keen to attend.

John Gordon Sinclair has never surpassed the gangly charmy of Gregory, Claire Grogan is nicely knowing in her part as Susan and the supporting cast of enthusiastic locals is genuinely uplifting.

Among them, Amanda Muir, who was just four when she was asked to be in the film.

She's the blonde on the bike in the picture, one of a group of children playing outside Gregory's house.

She even had a line, "hullo Gregory", which she delivered like a professional.

Husband Alan, who'll join his wife at the screening on Sunday, says it's still a firm favourite in their house.

"Everyone's seen the film and everyone remembers the line," he says.

"It's got a special place in our hearts - as it does for a lot of people I think. It's like a lovely postcard from the past."

And who says a love story in Cumbernauld is unlikely?

Not the Muirs, who along with their two children, now live in the town.

"We actually live just round the corner from The Fields - where Gregory and Clare Grogan's character dance to hold on to the Earth," he says.

"Amanda's folks still live round the corner from the house where Gregory stayed.

"I still watch the film whenever it's on - and the phone always goes with someone calling to say Amanda's line is coming up."

I admit my first reaction to the new wing of the Usher Hall was to let out a gasp.

And not in a good way.

On a winter's night, picking my way though the labyrinth of road closures outside, it's hard to get a clear view of the overall building and the glass wing at close quarters looks strangely at odds with the circular sweep of the original stone hall.

But returning earlier this week, on a bright sunny day - I got a fairer view.

And while still unconvinced by the outside, I have to say the inside (which opens to the public tomorrow) is stunning.

As well as offering new space, a café bar and box office, education rooms and a function suite, not to mention, the chance for all staff to be on site for the first time in decades, it also offers a fine view of the original, as the new building echoes its lines.

There are new lifts and a stunning staircase with a light installation (only a matter of time before the first photographer asks an orchestra to pose over its banisters) and much needed basics - such as additional toilets.

But the whole project has been somewhat overshadowed by the cost and time involved.

It's been more than 14 years since a falling piece of masonry in the auditorium highlighted the need for an urgent overhaul.

That took three years and cost more than £10m.

This latest phase has been held up by grant applications and unexpected rock formations (unsurprising, surely, so close to the volcanic plug of Edinburgh Rock) and costs have risen from the initial £10m estimate to the current £25m bill (which is still subject to confirmation).

On top of that, the landscaping outside - a further £3.95m - won't be finished for another few months, making the whole area not just a mess, but less than accessible for everyone.

Has it been worth it? Well the Usher Hall, like any old venue, wasn't built for modern concerts.

The changes are important not just for the comfort of the audiences but for the future of the hall, which has to compete with other more modern venues.

Cafe bars and hospitality suites, while seemingly unimportant in the great scheme of things, are an important source of revenue.

And if the landscaping works as intended, it should unite the whole cultural quarter, offering a boost to the Traverse and the Lyceum, as well as the Usher Hall itself.

It's also been difficult for our homegrown orchestras - both the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra have had to be compensated for the fact they couldn't open their seasons here last year - although the Usher Hall insists both have recovered their audiences and are looking at increased sales for their forthcoming concerts.

And all those involved with this epic building project are anxious that they stage an opening gala which is just as epic (although not as epic as the campaign to build the place in the first instance, which took 20 years!).

And it doesn't come more epic than the Houston Symphony playing Holst's The Planets, alongside images of the real planets transmitted from space via the Hubble Telescope.

Edinburgh City Council will be hoping for "out of this world" headlines. And keeping their fingers crossed, it's not "Houston, we have a problem."

Singer Annie Lennox is the latest person to join the campaign to save Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen.

Responding to a post on her blog, which points out the Facebook campaign against the development of the gardens now has 6,000 signatories, she responds: "Actually, make that 6,000 and 1."

She writes: "Here's my take on this. Aberdeen was my home town. I was born there, and lived in the city until I was seventeen.

For me, Union Terrace Gardens was, and still is the green historical heart of the city.

Like so many towns and cities all over the country, Aberdeen lost a great deal of its architectural heritage and charm through destruction by bulldozer and concrete.

It made me sad then, and it still makes me sad. I hoped that this kind of 'vandalism' had peaked in the 60's and 70's, but for Aberdeen, it seems to be back with vengeance. What idiocy and madness.

I've been based in London since 1971, so I guess that kind of counts my voice out but, to the citizens of Aberdeen I would say this...

"Aberdeen is your home town. Are you going to sit back, and do nothing while its beautiful historic centre gets ripped out and concreted over??!! It's down to you to stop this happening."

Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future - Acsef - is currently undertaking a public consultation over plans to create a £150m piazza in the gardens.

Last week, it announced plans to launch an international design competition, if the consultation is favourable.

But a £13 million pound art gallery, which already has planning permission for the gardens, has had to be put on hold while the consultation is carried out.

Peacock Arts say their funding will be in jeopordy if they have to delay longer than the end of this financial year.

So ACSEF - Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future - have announced their intention to hold an international design competition for the civic square they hope to build over Union Terrace Gardens.

Not only does this presuppose that the good public of Aberdeen have given their plans the thumbs up in the ongoing consultation, but it also rather rudely fails to acknowledge the international plans already on the table for the £13m Peacock scheme, courtesy of Brisac Gonzales.

On top of that, ACSEF - who have £50m on the table from oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood - now say they want a major international gallery on the site "such as the Guggenheim".

Aside from the fact that with the V&A building an outpost, there may be a scarcity of international art development in the neighbourhood, there's also the issue of what they mean by trying to attract "a Guggenheim-type development".

Dr Stuart MacDonald, former head of Gray's School of Art, is one of the first to point out that ACSEF may be muddling the Guggenheim effect with the Bilbao effect.

"The Bilbao effect is continuing to pay dividends for that city because of the way the art centre was conceived as part of a well thought out urban regeneration strategy," he says.

"The Guggenheim effect has, by contrast, been disastrous. The overambitious plan to roll out Guggenheims across the world on the back of Bilbao fell flat on its face - a kind of architectural hyperinflation.

"Fortunately people are much more sensible now and realise that cultural centres are important, but that they need to be rooted into the creative industries community and education infrastructure, and integrated into broader regeneration strategies."

And if ACSEF is looking for an international art development - which might kick-start its own version of the Bilbao effect - it doesn't have to look much further than the Peacock plans, while perhaps extending some of their extra budget to the dilapidated areas adjoining the gardens.

Unfortunately, so far they don't seem to be looking in that direction.