Bishopsgate, from 35 bus, 24th December 2008

A rare foray into east London, which is evidently as littered with escapes this season as the south, west and central parts. I've spent a couple of nights at Dirty Dick's, and a fine old City boozer it is too, but this time I was simply passing, sat glassy-eyed on the bus having spent a blurry night on a friend's sofa. We were sat stationary at traffic lights for this shot, which is just as well as had we been cruising past I doubt my dulled morning reactions would have allowed their capture.

Northcote Road, 14th December 2008

The glut continues... a multicoloured cluster snagged in lights on a very grey day. I think this cluster actually adds to the decorations, a fetching statement at the apex of the lines of light.

High Street Kensington, 11th December 2008

Good grief, when will it end?! It was never like this in Christmases 2005-2007. Maybe balloons are having their golden year. So popular that people lose them without a care, and London's street trees end up festooned with ersatz rubber versions of the indoor trees' glass baubles. How many more before the year ends..?

Edgware Road, from 36 bus, 9th December 2008

And more! A red pair snared in bare branches, tied and trapped together and still just inflated enough to lend a festive feel to a grubby scene. That festive feel is fated to end before the festive season itself, of course, and my daily view of them on my commute will afford me a clear and sorry view of their slow demise.

Acre Lane, 6th December 2008

But the day wasn't over - I left town dizzy with excess and glad to be away from the teeming hordes and back in the relative quiet of home, when I spotted this pale ghost of a balloon trapped in the branches of a tree near my house.

This sighting did at least provide an element of realism to the day, a more familiar feel after the madness detailed below. I don't have many night shots, so this is a rarity in its own right, which makes it all the more pleasing. Back to reality, then. Eight in one day and several more that eluded me... but who knows how long until the next one?

Around Oxford Street/Regent Street, 6th December 2008

It was a day of balloons. They were everywhere. I missed a few and didn't care. By the end I was so ballooned out that I wondered if I could ever take another one again - I mean, what could compare? The fleeting and scarce glimpses that have been my sustenance over the past three and a half years have been rendered farcical by today's glut.

It started like any other day. A red escape, the top one, flying low over sunlit buildings in central London, snapped happy as a rare treat. But it was a mere taste of things to come, an amuse l'oeil before the feast of sightings. The roads were closed and pedestrianised to entice out credit-crunched shoppers, and balloons had been pressed into their usual decorative service. The UK must now be in the grip of a helium shortage. So many festooned streets and shops that I suppose countless escapes were inevitable. I wonder how far they flew, on the icy wind?

So my memory is hazed by weight of numbers, and these are lumped together for convenience. 6th December 2008: Balloon Day.

St John's Road, 29th November 2008

This metallic blue was tumbling southwards in a cold wet wind on a cold wet afternoon. I crossed the road to capture it close up, attempting and failing to avoid the teeming shoppers. It didn't move fast and neither did I, so I had a while to snap away, but this was the best of the shots. I left the scene happy and quickly, with no inclination to wait and see its imminent and inevitable demise.