Two of my young nephews have had their birthdays this week. Now when I actually remember the children’s birthdays (and I do forget sometimes because there are so many to remember – our family is like a Giles cartoon, if you can remember all those naughty little boys running around) I try to mark their birthdays with a home-made, and therefore unique, card.

James, now twelve, had his birthday first, on Wednesday; he has been making wine this summer so I thought he would appreciate a card depicting his face on the label of a wine bottle. The photograph I used was a little old – his big second teeth were still in the process of coming through, but with a bit of luck he might not have noticed that I used quite such an old photo – he was recognisably the same.

This afternoon I spent about an hour hunting through external hard drives full of children’s photo’s, looking for any up-to-date pictures of John, who has turned fourteen today. John has always been a charming boy, always eager to pose for photographs for his aunty, mainly because he is something of an extrovert and a master in the art of face-pulling – he should be, he has been at it for the past twelve years! Hence the rather long, and not entirely successful search for nice photo’s. I fancied I would Photoshop his face onto the body of “Superman” (now that he is becoming more manly) and I would wish him a “Super” birthday.

I downloaded some Superman images from the Internet and tried to find photo’s of John in the right position and reasonable angle to fit the downloaded images. Sadly the photo’s most suitable to fit were four and five years old, and they were all of John wearing his strangest, pose for aunty Sally, expressions. His tongue poked out in one, he looked Chinese in another; therefore, he was Superman with his tongue poking out as he was flying, or Superman smiling weirdly whilst flying, or Superman standing boldly with his tongue out, or  a Chinese Superman standing boldly. “I can’t turn any of those into a Superman card,” I thought, “I know, (I had a flash of inspiration) I’ll use the Superman image with the smallest head so that nobody will notice John’s extraordinary expression!”

That’s what I did and I think the card looks great even if John’s head looks like a strange nine-year-old plonked on the fully developed Superman body. I printed some of the “duds”, which I popped in an envelope marked “Private and Confidential” and wrote, “No-one need ever see these photos if you give me back the enclosed tenner!” Happily, John took the tenner so I’m under no obligation to keep the photographs to myself!