Sibir, the London-listed Russian oil company, continues to excite much City chat. Two former directors are being sued over loans given to one of its largest shareholders and there's talk of BP's Russian joint venture lining up a bid.

Meanwhile, City Spy continues to wonder about the ambitions of Sibir's financial adviser, Richard Fenhalls from Strand Partners. JP Morgan was asked by Fenhalls to put a price on Sibir, which came out at £4 per share (as opposed to the current price of 175p - the shares have been 579p in the past 12 months). However, Fenhalls did not like the valuation and he's now asked Merrill Lynch to do one. JP Morgan have found out and aren't best-pleased. But why the valuation and why the second opinion - could it be that JP Morgan's was too high and it's hoped Merrill's is cheaper?

Some believe Fenhalls may be lining up a deal with one of the Russian shareholders. The UK minority institutional shareholders are not best pleased at the lack of consultation. M&G, in particular, is thought to be concerned...

* Credit crunch or healthier eating? The sirloin steak has been knocked off the top spot of the most frequently listed meal on pub menus to be replaced by chicken breast. The research from hospitality analyst Horizons which strips out the ubiquitous pub burger or pizza, shows that the sirloin has fallen foul of diners to end up in fourth place. Chicken breast, meanwhile, has flown up from eighth last year.

* As if YouTube didn't have enough problems with Credit Suisse's recent prediction it will lose owner Google $470 million this year. A new website offers disaffected YouTube users the chance to attach the Benny Hill theme tune to any YouTube posting and speed it up ad infinitum www.james.nerdiphythesoul.com/bennyhillifier.

* Can anyone please explain why Credit Suisse, hired by ITV to sell Friends Reunited, should codename the sale, Project Finland? Vodka shots, anyone?

* Jarvis chairman and Tory former transport minister Steve Norris on his schooldays at the Liverpool Institute: “I learned how to avoid getting stabbed in the back in the playground and operate a black market for three-quarters of a pint of milk. All the bad habits I learned in life, I learned from school.”

How punter had the last Lafi

Liam Treadwell may have had his 15 minutes of fame winning the Grand National, and 15 minutes more after BBC presenter Clare Balding rudely ribbed him about his appalling teeth, but the jockey also turns up in the memoirs out yesterday of professional punter Patrick Veitch. The book Enemy Number One, reveals how Treadwell played a key role in one of Veitch's biggest coups. Veitch records that the then flat-racing jockey was “not seeming at all keen to over-exert himself” on a horse called Lafi in a losing preparatory race, ahead of appearing at Royal Ascot, where the horse stormed to victory under a different jockey, which netted Veitch more than £250,000...

* More bad news for chef Gordon Ramsay, whose main company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, has been beset by financial problems? A month after selling his LA and Paris flagship restaurants, now the rumour mill in New York is doom-mongering about his New York site. The West 54th Street venue Gordon Ramsay at the London (locally renamed Gordon Ramsay-less at the London) has already stopped serving lunch. Now rumours are flying that an exit plan is being implemented there too.

Tilemaker faces up to Sir Allen

Sir Allen Stanford's face is up for sale — for only £20.

An entrepreneurial clay company in Florida has put the accused fraudster's image on tiles which are going under the hammer on eBay. The seller writes: “Yet another dirty rotten greedy schemer and swindler of billions, Edison Clay is releasing a very limited edition set of tiles which decommemorate his diabolical deeds.” Only 1000 are to be produced and the seller claims “this would be an ideal gift for a friend or for family”.

And, like the man pictured on the tile, likely to end up broke, no doubt.

The German invasion starts at Wrexham

The Germans are coming. German railway company Deutsche Bahn has long covetously looked at the deregulated British train market but thus far has made few inroads.

That is beginning to change. Virgin Trains' row with upstart start-up train operator the Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway, or WMR, that planned to run rival services to and from Euston station, went up a gear when Virgin Trains' Sir Richard Branson revealed that WMR is not some quaint operation run by rural rail buffs but is in fact a vehicle for none other than Deutsche Bahn.

Separately, it now emerges that the old British Rail freight company, which was privatised as EWS and last year was quietly acquired by Deutsche Bahn and rebranded as DB Schenker, has been given permission to start using the high-speed link through Kent to transport cargo via the Channel Tunnel.

Few rail insiders doubt that Deutsche Bahn is stoking plans for a passenger service on the high-speed link to rival Eurostar...

* But will Richard Brown, the boss of Eurostar, ever deliver on his promise for the high-speed train service to carry 10 million passengers in 2010? City Spy only asks, as passenger traffic is currently down 11.5% a year and in the first quarter of this year it carried fewer than two million passengers. That 10 million target, of course, is already drastically pared back from the commitments made when the taxpayer signed up to fund the link to the Channel Tunnel...

* Scrawled on the wall of a ladies' loo at the City of Westminster magistrates court on Horseferry Road: “I've just had a judge who I smoke crack cocaine with.”

* So Wal-Mart has knocked Coca-Cola off its perch as the most valuable brand on the planet. Which are the only UK brands to make the top 10? HSBC (seven) and Vodafone (eight).