h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today's been an odd day. I woke up about eleven o'clock - I've been slipping back into the pain and fatigue of ME after a week or so of virtual normality - and then had to be the doting taxi service for my daughter who had two parties to attend, both at the same Macdonalds but an hour apart. When I got into the car and tried to start her, the battery was almost dead - perhaps my car is coming out in sympathy for me.
Virtual Normality - that's got to be a good title for a book, surely. Norman the hero who is sick and tired of the exciting and thrilling life of virtual reality in which people have become encased. He goes in search of the sacred cardigan, the holy brown plaid slippers, and that most sacred of elixirs - warm cocoa. The ultimate anti-hero. He's almost ensnared by the shell suit wearing boredom patrol, and the leather clad society of genuine sensation, but his focus is set on those three items that will make his existence complete. There's an obvious twist that could be employed at the end where we find that his adventure has all taken place within virtual reality, but it would be really crass to employ such a naff device; not that it's stopped people before. I do have a better idea, but I'm not telling so wait and see if I ever write the book.