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Hi Bazotto.
13 snake 18 at back 19 follow up on (once) 24 ham 28 bowel (prefix) 30 affluent anglo-indian 38 normal clue : attraction
2 sweet (inf) 3 cheery 9 cleared (garden) 10 normal clue : work 20 one who leaves post (work) 24 mixed race is such 29 septa

Good morning Meursault. You going to bed with the owls or getting up with the sparrows? (That's the last time I'll mention birds.Promise.) 2dn seems to be ALL SERENE but...10dn OVERA**. 20dn RETIRER/E? 20dn MESTEE? 13ac I have ELAVI*. 24ac no idea, ditto 30 and 38. 28ac looks like ENROLO. 38 LURE? Then I get LEPLA for 20dn. I'm very lost on this crossword but at least I'm apparently not alone.

Aha. 30ac and the final letter of 20dn are all that remain. Then dog-walking, coffee and then start on the scissory bits. Thanks again for your help.

Hi Bazotto. Sometimes a hawk, sometimes a dove...
30 alternative for chi (name of TV panel quiz) with U in, followed by old alternative for high; 20 - you were right, ending -ee.

Hi, bazotto,

I’d never come across the answer to 30ac before. As already noted by Meursault and others, the clue needs to be corrected from “chief fluent” to “chi affluent”. In this case, “chi” refers to the Chinese life force, which is now more usually transliterated as “qi”. The rest should be available to you from crossing answers.

In 20dn, the final letter is cryptically indicated by “Spain”.

Meursault and Wintonian, may you be numbered with the saints, whose feast day it is today.

Bazatto, I've got slightly different for 13ac and 10d.
13a It's an anagram of IDEAL and P.
10d is a very common for work, I think.

Very common word, I meant to type.

Hey jazzlover. I'd been trying to use over(t) as blatant so that buggered things up wonderfully but once I put that train of thought to bed it all started coming together. Having said that, I would still be loudly using language (which the parrot is all too happy to repeat when I have visitors) at the grid were it not for the helpful bunch of people on this site.

Pleasure, Bazatto. I used overt too at first, so you're not alone.