OK - time to choose a winner & pass the batton on...
I like Trena's & Arthur's interpretation - very similar to what I did with it. I like the idea of the Sepia toning you've used Sassan but somewhere its lost a bit too much detail for me. Rob - great fun
For creativity I love what Graham & Tangata have done. Graham - did you try flipping the image? - I think that might have improved the composition. Tangata - the background original image looks a bit over sharpened to me on my monitor - difficult I appreciate when you're not working with a full sized original.
So... tough choice all round, but I think I'll hand over to Graham - I suggest you start a new thread with your images otherwise this one could get really long!
Thank you to everyone who had a go.