As I’m trying to get control of my bike, the Loan Shark turns in the carriage seat and yells back to me: ‘Don’t forget, you can use Dougal’s Head all month absolutely FREE! Brought to you by BigSky, the pop-up tech company. Think of us like a five-hectare hallucinogenic shroom.’

Dougal’s Head is one of BigSky’s paid apps that puts AR in full colour and reality in greyscale so you don’t confuse the two. The ad is crude but perfectly timed; I call up the app. The last time I went for a night out in town with Shandy, we were too cheap to use blockers and Shandy got in a fistfight with what she thought were AR-bots but turned out to be US Navy SEALs on leave. Then we had to wait on trolleys in a corridor of the Royal Free for eleven hours with the injured SEALs, one of whom thought Shandy’s black eye was sexy and kept hitting on her even though she’d kneecapped his mate.

I’m sure it wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t both been drunk and Shandy also high, but even stone sober it’s always hard to be sure whether you’re looking at a real person or an AR intrusion. Especially if you’re a touch near-sighted like me and especially if it’s raining (which it usually is). I activate Dougal’s Head knowing that it will probably trigger my narcolepsy, but since it’s free for thirty days, I may as well. I haven’t used this app in a long time, but now that it’s on again it reminds me of Dream City, where other dreamers show up in greyscale. Now, making my way across London to Mel’s hotel, I realise that by that logic, all of us fleshmuppets are dreaming and the AR is awake. Lovely dark thought.