Would You Like Your Lingam Massage to be Done By a Babe?

Recent email exchange went as follows:
Where are you?
I'm in Kent
Too far for me babe.

Babe? Why babe on the end of the sentence?
Is this really the way to address someone you have never met? What kind of people use this word and why? What does it mean?  I'm sure I'm not one.

I think it is a term used by a young person with poor social skills and poor vocabulary but I could be wrong.  I'm probably old enough to be his mother, may be almost his granny!

I'm fairly certain I never actually see real clients who call call any women babe!
So, dear reader, if babe (or hun) is part of your language I'm probably not the woman you are looking for.