I fly both US and European helicopters and have never thought about which way the blades go !!
Well that must make you super-duper good then Nigel because I fly both too and I do think about it before the first take off.
But then for many years I have taught students to take off as slowly as they can so they understand the subtleties of taking an aircraft from the level attitude on flat ground to the hover attitude and then manage it smoothly instead of jerking into the air and then achieving a hover.
I agree that watching out the front window and monitoring the aircraft's tendency yaw, roll and pitch is the way to do it but some pre-positioning of the controls happens before the change occurs - it is the motor program you have learned and your control inputs will always be ahead, in anticipation, rather than purely reactive.