Filtering the knowledge?

Or knowing the filters.

One of the benefits of advancing years is the occasional present comes Birthday time.
One of this years was a Cokin holder, adapter ring and one filter.

Said birthday fell 2 weeks ago tomorrow and, I suspect Herself got a wee bit suspicious it wasn't fully appreciated. Truth be told, most of our recent skies didn't merit its use.

Today the Dowly fettle syndrome continues and we've not stirred again. On the plus side the sky has been more conducive to a spot of filtering.

I dare say I'm not the only one who has ever grabbed the camera and forgotten it wasn't a "Pointy-shooty" type...Result the first two without and with were on "Manual" which had last been used on 1/250 @ f11.
The second pair were taken AFTER I noticed, set on "Flash Off" and therefore adjusted itself to take account of the filter and it chose
1/320 @ f16 without the filter.
1/200 @ f11 with filter.

I know full-well there's at least one impatient soul out there positively SCREAMING ''WHAT bloody filter?''

P121S = ''Gradual Neutral Grey G2 Soft (ND8) ? 0.9''

NOW all I need is for some kind soul out there to translate the ''(ND8) - 0.9'' part.

It must have been written by an American. They Seem Prone To Capitalisation of all words, that's if a lot of my emails are anything to go by.