Kit gets lost, stolen and soaked. What’s in your head comes along for free. Tick each skill off once someone in the family can actually do it, not once you’ve watched a video.

• Swimming and water safety. Flood season makes this the most important skill here. About 10 lessons at any local pool.
• First aid and CPR. Malaysian Red Crescent or St John Ambulance Malaysia run one- and two-day courses. Chapter 6 is the cheat sheet; the course is the real thing.
• The fuse box and the generator. Switch off the mains, reset a tripped breaker, run a genset safely outdoors. Wiring changes go to a licensed electrician.
• Cooking over fire. One camping weekend. Rice in a pot over flame is humbling.
• Map and compass. Trekking clubs and Malaysian Nature Society outings will teach you. Phones die; north doesn’t.
• Five knots. Bowline, clove hitch, taut-line hitch, sheet bend, trucker’s hitch. One evening and some paracord.
• Growing food in pots. Kangkung, chilli, pandan, curry leaves, sweet potato leaves. Balcony-friendly, nearly impossible to kill.
• Basic repairs. Sewing a tear, patching a bicycle tyre, fixing a leaking pipe with tape.
• Self-defence and de-escalation. See chapter 8. One discipline, one year.
• Radio. Licence-free walkie-talkies for the family and the street. Amateur radio needs an MCMC licence and is a superb hobby for a long crisis.
• Staying calm. Box breathing: in for 4, hold 4, out 4, hold 4. Teach the kids. Use it yourself before you make the big decision.