Last Wednesday, 8th March, was International Women’s Day, a day that all women should celebrate. It commemorates the movement for women’s rights and celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. As you can see, I’m all for celebrating this day!
I’m a firm believer that this world would not be the same if it weren’t for all the amazing women we have. I have received a lot of support from women throughout my life, starting with a family that was 80% women and 20% men. Back home, we were 4 women out of 6, so we always had the majority when it came to getting our voices heard, which was great!
I was invited to attend a Nordic Tea at Aster Restaurant in Victoria, London, to celebrate International Women’s Day. There was no way I could turn down the opportunity of celebrating such an important day, not just in style but surrounded by like-minded women.
Step Up Club founders
Aster Restaurant joined forces with Step Up Club (a fresh, new voice in the women’s career conversation) to host a traditional Nordic tea with freshly baked pastries and Smorgasbord open sandwiches.
The invitation was for 3:30 pm. I had an earlier event that day, so I was already in Central London, which was handy. My previous event finished early, so I was free to head straight to Victoria after. I thought it could be nice to be there earlier and walk around the area.
I knew that Nicky from Not Just the 3 of Us would be attending this event too, so I was looking forward to seeing her. I saw her last in November, I think. When I arrived, she was at the bar waiting with Elena from Loved By Elena. It was nice that there were more mummy bloggers there. We were taken to our table, and we spent the whole afternoon together.
We were given some sparkling wine and water after we sat down at our table. I had never been to this restaurant before, and I was very impressed. It is a gorgeous place with beautiful decoration. I wanted to take photos of every single detail.
We were offered some delicious sandwiches to pick. We had Atlantic Prawn Skagen on sourdough; Blackcurrant Herring with egg on dark rye; and Pork roll with aquavit and mustard. And for pudding, we had Cinnamon Knot, Blueberry Pie, rye crostini, and Lingonberry Macaroon.
The food was delicious. I really enjoyed it. My favourites were the Prawn Skagen and the pork roll, and from the sweets, I absolutely loved the Blueberry Pie. It was a dream to eat! It was fantastic to open it and discover everything inside.
With Executive Head Chef at Aster, Helena Puolakka
They had a fabulous panel of talented D&D female chefs who discussed their passion for food and their experiences as women in such a high-pressure industry. The speakers were Executive Head Chef at Aster, Helena Puolakka, Skylon’s new Head Chef, Kim Woodward, and The Modern Pantry Head Chef, Anna Hansen, MBE. They were all great!
The afternoon passed very quickly. I had such a lovely time. I enjoyed the venue, the food and the company. It was lovely to chat with Nicky and Elena. It was, for me, a perfect afternoon tea! I hope we can do it again! 🙂
Did you celebrate International Women’s Day? If so, what did you do?
*Disclosure: I was invited to attend this lovely event for the purpose of this blog post. All the opinions and thoughts are my own.
Thanks for stopping by,
Love you all ❤️
Franca 💋
That looks nice. I promoted 3 women’s charites for International Women’s Day – 2 here and 1 in Cambodia. Hopefully I had some small effect for them. #KCACOLS
Wow that is a lot! I’m sure you did! 🙂 x
Sounds like you had a great day. The afternoon tea looks scrummy. Pen x #KCACOLS
Yes I did! Thank you! 🙂 x
Yum! Sounds lovely!
I had a late celebration of international womens day, having a lovely lunch (just a cosy local cafe) with my daughter and my mum the day after! #KCACOLS
That looked amazing – what a nice way to spend an afternoon! I didn’t celebrate international women’s day this year but I am trying my best to raise my daughters and sons to be feminists. Thanks for hosting #KCACOLS
What a lovely chance to all meet up over some delicious looking food. #KCACOLS
What a fantastic event and for such a great cause. Looks like you had a wonderful time. #kcacols
Gorgeous photos as always!!! What a fun time and how awesome that you got to spend it with fellow mommy bloggers!!! So happy for you 🙂 #KCACOLS
I can not handle looking at that food (as I shove Cheese Its in my mouth.)
#KCACOLS
What a venue and the food looks incredible. Sounds like a really good time and a good cause too. Thanks for hosting as always! #KCACOLS xx
Sounds like you had a really lovely time, and the food looked amazing! What a fab way to celebrate international women’s day. x #KCACOLS
Wow, this looks scrumptious. It looks as if you had a lovely taken. I would love an afternoon tea right now. ☕️ #KCACOLS
Looks delicious – I’ve never heard of this place before but I love a good afternoon tea, especially with a twist! The ligonberry macaroon sounds just right! #kcacols
Oooo wow looks super special, those cakes! Divine (: #KCACOLS
Ah, how lovely to spend the afternoon with some familiar faces, too. I read Nicky’s post about this too. The food and restaurant look absolutely stunning too. Glad you had a great time. #KCACOLS
This looks like a great event. I wrote a post about my concern that International Women’s Day, although hugely important, puts more pressure on women to be things that they might not always want to be. Personally I think IWD should promote choice and encourage people, particularly women, to be less judgemental about other women’s career choices. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to have it all and can often end up having very little! #KCACOLS
Sounds like you had a great day. The restaurant looks amazing and all for such an important day. I hope my daughters have even more opportunities than I do. #KCACOLS
Oh Wow! This place is looks Amazing! Very stylish indeed! Happy International Women’s Day! x #kcacols
This looks like a gorgeous afternoon! I love those succulents dangling in those bauble and the blueberry pie looks delicious!
#KCACOLS
What a perfect way to sound an afternoon. The for looks amazing, love gravalax! #KCACOLS
Looks amazing! Fab time had by all 🙂 #KCACOLS
Looks like a great place to go. And what a fantastic way to celebrate IWD. I’m a big fan of celebrating women and all of our achievements 🙂 #KCACOLS
Oh wow what a great way to celebrate IWD.. The food looked amazing, and the restaurant looks great too. x #KCACOLS
Oh wow this all look fab! Those macaroons made my mouth water, and what fabulous company too! I’m very jealous! #KCACOLS
WHat a great way to celebrate international womens day! It looks and sounds like it was a lovely event. I love anything like this where you can hear fantastic people speak, meet like minded people (bloggers!) and enjoy good food and drink 🙂 Lovely pictures, you’re looking fab lovely! Emily #KCACOLS
What an amazing event! I couldn’t help but marvel at how tasty and beautiful the food looked. Being a former cook in restaurants I can testify to how hard of an industry that is on women. What a great forum for talking abut women! #KCACOLS