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Her name is Bea, she went fishing in the Middle East and crabbing in Kuwait

27 January 2008, nearly 3pm... Bea and daughter 20-something daughter sit in the sun-filled corner table by the window of out-of-the-way Rue Bebelon. Bea sips her tea while her edgy, pretty daughter bites into the second half of her Rue Bebelon roll - the only lunch item on the bar's menu.

"My son has been in a car accident," Bea tells her daughter's friend who settles into the spare chair beside her. "It is not serious, but we need to leave soon to drive to Geelong pick him up."

They are here to talk about Bea's eight-year stint as an air hostess, a hostie, a flight stewardess, a long-haul flight attendant for Malaysia Airlines during the heady early days of wide-spread world travel and international adventures during the 1970s.

Weighing up all her future options after finishing high school, the multilingual Bea chose the life of an air hostess for the sight-seeing opportunities and generous salary.

"Malaysia was a British colony then, so we all studied English at school. And I could also speak Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese. I'm still doing languages. I'm learning Japanese now."

Bea replied to the advertisement and went along to the pre-requisite medical to have her eyes, teeth, height and weight checked in order to be considered for an interview. "You weren't allowed glasses or dentures, and you had to be a certain weight."

After six weeks of training, the young Bea worked as a domestic flight stewardess for one-and-a-half years before entering the more lucrative and demanding international flights where the cabin crew received an allowance and accommodation during the week-long stop-overs before the next flight was booked to head home.

"We stayed in five -star hotels because each time you walk into the foyer and out of the hotel you are representing the airline," she says, relaxing into her chair, the memories and stories coming easily.

"There was an image we had to maintain. We had to tie up long hair, and touch up make-up during a flight. We wore court shoes when outside of the cabin, and flat shoes when inside the cabin. We wore a blazer and a hat. We were fined if we were seen outside of the cabin not wearing the hat."

It was these week-long stop-overs that Bea enjoyed the most about her job. Most were spent in London, or in various European capital cities. She would spend her days travelling out to the small towns and country-side and visit the free museums and art galleries.

"In the past there were weekly international flights, so we would have to stay where we were for up to eight days. Now it is two flights a day. I also did a lot of sports, such as swimming, fishing in the Middle East and crabbing in Kuwait."

Her stop-over allowance was saved and used to support her family back home in Malaysia. She was the family bread-winner and lived a responsible life, while her follow hosties would spend their time and stop-over allowance in the London's fashionable shops.

"Didn't some of these girls sleep with the captions?" her daughter prods, wanting her mother to tell the kinds of in-the-know stories she heard as a kid growing up in Melbourne's suburbs.

Bea pauses to look at her daughter of the same small and lean size. A smile slowly stretches across her round face and she almost shrugs as she brushes her bobbed, dark curls from her forehead.

"Yes, there were those who slept with the captains, and then there were the goody-goodies. Some did it just for fun. They were 18, 19, 20 year-olds. Some would even pick up passengers, and eventually get married. One girl married a royal family member.

"I chose to marry an ordinary aircraft engineer."

Dressed in short and a t-shirt, her aircraft engineer husband walks into the bar, greets the group are the far-familiar table and sits on a stool by the bar to order a drink. The camera strap sits firm across his broad-shouldered chest, under his very Charles Bronson face. He has used the every-present camera to take pictures of inner-city Melbourne while waiting for his wife to finish telling her air travel stories.

The couple met while both working for Malaysia Airlines. He wore side-burns and a leather jacket, and rode a motorbike. They married, had four children and moved to Melbourne for the "opportunities". She now works as a travel agent.

"One of the conditions is that your can get married, but not have babies. You can ask to be re-trained. Cabin crew tend to be versatile, you can work anywhere."

Bea doesn't miss the three-days-on and one-day-off roster, being on roster-standby, the sometimes nasty passengers and reporting in two hours before a flight.

"It's not as fun anymore," she says as she and her husband get ready to leave to pick up their son stranded in Geelong. "The stop-over stay is around 12 hours now."

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